Supreme Commander: Reclaimers
by Guardian54
Summary: This is directly after my SupCom: Mass Effect 2 fic. Romance John/Liara, James/Tali. If you don't read SupCom ME 2 first, this will not make that much sense. Will cover from Harvest to the Ark and beyond. Enjoy the lol!OP!Humanity.
1. Contact Harvest

A/N: Halo canon will be modified slightly, most battles will still occur, but the outcomes will enjoy significant changes (not win-loss changes, just loss ratios).

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><p>Chapter 1: Contact Harvest<p>

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 17, 3871_

"Supreme UEF Commander Hackett, Elite Commander Dostya, Avatar of War Rhiza and General Seth-Thauum authorized collectively to immediately warn you of this danger and ask you to investigate if this has anything to do with the Reapers. We've taken down a scout craft of some sort, puny thing, smaller than an ASF…" EDI snorted "And then they came with a larger ship a week later, a kilometre long, with plating that's on the order of the best plating we had… a hundred-plus years ago. It was really thick though, stood up to a lot of punishment. Anyways, we opened negotiations and they seemed alright… until one of their smaller races shot one of our Marines with a plasma-type weapon, an overcharged shot, still pitifully weak, something like a Phasic Shotgun shot at most. The three Marines on-site engaged the enemy once hostilities were confirmed begun and inflicted major losses on them before enemy air support came in and evacuated the rest. We didn't bother shooting down the evac craft."

"What did we do to the capital ship they brought in?" John queried.

"Three Mavor shells, took less than thirty seconds counting flight time to take it down, it was parked on the surface after all. We've analyzed their wreckage, their point defence lasers weren't that good, couldn't possibly deal with Loa Missiles' splitting." EDI stated succinctly. "All civilians have been evacuated and the planet has been garrisoned by a fleet. We've been waiting for three days now and there's been no sign of any hostile survivors in the wreckage, nor any more ships approaching via slipspace, which we've figured out is what these guys use. We are under orders to immediately join up with the 3rd Executioner Swarm, your mother's fleet, which is currently in orbit of Harvest and ready to defend it."

"Alright then…" John said thoughtfully "plot course, EDI, let's see if this has anything to do with the Reapers…" An Executioner Swarm was a large fleet, fifty-six capital ships, but against Reapers, the full-size ones with full armament, they could maybe take down two Reapers before being eliminated, as in one Executioner Swarm facing off against two standard Reapers results in more or less mutual annihilation… assuming sitting and slugging. Obviously, that was very different from actual space combat.

"Course plotted, Quantum jump in…" She started the countdown, though talking over it to John in his helmet. "We've found this group to be known as the Covenant from the archives of the downed 'Cruiser'. They are a conglomerate of species like us however appear highly hierarchical."

"Alright, let's see how this goes…" They jumped and landed among the fleet of Battleships, Battlecruisers, Fleet Carriers and Escort Carriers.

Hannah Shepard immediately greeted them "John, come onboard for a briefing, bring James and Tali, haven't got a good chance to grill her yet."

"Understood Division Commander." John saluted.

"There's no time for formalities, we've discovered some things that will be critical to this no doubt upcoming battle." Hannah growled "Get your ass over here boy!"

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><p><em>Conference Room, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, February 17, 3871_

"Is there any reason this ship isn't named?" James asked cautiously.

"I've moved between so many flagships I'm tired of naming them." Hannah growled as they entered the conference room. "This Covenant apparently only detected some signature from this archaeological dig up here, belonging to the Forerunners as we've decided to call them. Their scout ship's scanners couldn't penetrate our passive stealth and active camo, we checked the cruiser's logs and they came looking for what shot the scout down, which was a Zealot SIM from a local Light Orbital Defence Station, as well as for that structure in the dig site. It's yielded nothing useful to us, the tech's out of date by our standards, but if the Covenant are mad enough to fight for it we'll make them pay for every inch they try to take from us. The cruiser's sensors are able to penetrate our active camo at close range and passive stealth further out, so their spaceships will actually be dangerous if we close to Ravager ideal range." Ravager rounds were slow, but they were good at chewing up shields and armour of all makes and classifications. "Also, we've salvaged schematics for a larger weapon, it is akin to Sovereign's weapons, but on about the same scale as what the other, larger Reapers are likely to use. It is able to deal up to 45000 damage points to our shield and/or field ratings in one shot. Of course, this also makes it a viable option for glassing operations, despite the reload rate being one three-second burst every thirty seconds. We could engineer something similar but it's impractical to use, much easier to just use a Scathis gun on a ship to do the job." The Coalition knew glassing VERY well, Procyon had once been glassed (and then re-terraformed) and Earth had effectively been half-glassed (and mostly repaired within a decade). In the complete renovation-style terraforming process, a month would be enough to reclaim a glassed planet.

"Do you think…?" John trailed off.

"What's Glassing?" Tali asked, glancing between her boyfriend and the woman she secretly hoped would be her mother-in-law someday.

"Bombarding a planet's surface until it melts, then letting it re-solidify as glass." Hannah shrugged "I've done it on a regional scale a few times myself, doesn't take much in terms of nukes to pull off. One Strategic Nuke can glass an entire city except the buildings if it goes off at the heart of the city. It says something about how tough we build typical cities, not the small settlements or resorts you see in the ACU Simulator maps."

Tali was horrified "But that's… that's worse than asteroid warfare…"

"It's a lot more regional than asteroid warfare" Hannah stated bluntly "all our Strategic Missiles have blast containment protocols that direct the yield into an area in front of the warhead, that means a circle on the ground. Even so, they can't kill a Soul Ripper, Galactic Colossus or Megalith in one blast, despite the yield having been upgraded to eight Gigatons since the Seraphim War. For comparison, the current model of Yolona Oss offers four HUNDRED Gigatons per missile."

Tali was gaping as her helmet optics indicated "But… but…"

"Mom, I think you broke her." James grumbled.

Hannah sighed and ran her hand through her jet-black, shiny long hair "Sorry Tali if I shocked you, now, since we haven't picked up anything incoming by slipspace, we have some more time… Tali, can we talk in private?"

Tali nodded "Certainly, Hannah."

"She's going to get grilled." John smirked at his twin once the two women had moved off to another room. "I hope she survives."

"Tali's tougher than she looks." James replied evenly, leaning against the conference table.

"I believe it, the question is, is she tough enough to stand up to our mother? She's no hyper-powered Ardat-Yakshi, that's for sure." John said, looking down at the deck.

* * *

><p>"So, Tali, I've heard a lot from James about you. It seemed like over the last two years, other than John, you were what occupied his spare time." Hannah said, circling around Tali like the predator she was "It's too bad that I won't have any human grandkids, but you make James happy, so I'm fine with you being with him. Try not to kill him by anaphylactic shock though, though I doubt I have to worry about that, I could smell you all over him." Hannah smirked at the light blush Tali's helmet optics had coloured with "I'm sure he's munched enough dextro-amino snacks to show if he was allergic." Tali covered her face in embarrassment as Hannah laughed "Anyways, take good care of my son and I won't have to tear your no doubt pretty head off your shoulders and bathe in your blood." She said lightly, happily, making Tali shiver at the fact that she sounded like she was talking about cute fluffy kittens and not brutally murdering her son's girlfriend.<p>

"Uh, yes, ma'am." She replied nervously, the mental image of Hannah tying her upside-down over her bathtub before hacking her head off and enjoying a red bath flashing across her mind.

Hannah nodded "Good, now, I was thinking… when are you going to propose to him?"

Tali frowned "Don't human relationships generally have the man proposing?"

Hannah shrugged "Well it can go either way, but most of the time we prefer to let the men do the work while at the same time keeping a tight leash on them. A piece of advice, if he's anything like his father, he'll believe that love like what I can between you, and it is much like what is between John and Liara, is enough, and not propose until you're considering children."

"But…" Tali bowed her head sadly "but I can't have his children…"

"Exactly, in about a year if he still hasn't proposed, start dropping hints that you'd like to get a more permanent arrangement. Even if you go for a common-law marriage I still want to make sure he at least gives you a ring. Don't wear it though after you get it for the first time, it can rip a finger off if it gets caught on something." Hannah warned "Believe me, I lost all the flesh of one of my fingers when I made a ring in art class and it got caught when I was playing basketball. It's painful, though thankfully not permanent." She showed Tali her hands, and they looked perfectly normal, no sign of scarring or anything. "You two have my blessing, enjoy your time together… you never know when it can get cut short… or how long it'll take you to move on. My bond with the twins' father wasn't nearly as strong as the bonds between you and James, John and Liara, but look at me, twenty years and I still haven't gotten another long-term boyfriend yet… of course, my promotions and much busier military career may have had something to do with that." Hannah shrugged.

"I already enjoy being with James, and I won't ever stop enjoying it."

Hannah smirked "Good to know my boys are as good in bed as I was, wonder which side's descendants will get the professional lovemaking genes this time. It's always been one line of the family that gets it, though first-gen spin-offs will also get the trait."

"Uh, can't have kids with him, remember?" Tali scratched the back of her helmet sheepishly.

"Right…" Hannah said slowly, then shrugged "guess it'll be John's side then, still, make sure you enjoy yourself whenever you show James a good time. Come on, let's get back to the boys, James will be worried sick, might even check you over the next time you're 'alone'" She winked "together, to make sure I haven't torn anything off you."

"Okay, let's go then…" Tali said uncertainly. The briefing and battle plan work would continue for a whole day, and it wasn't until the second day that they made it back to the Normandy II.

It turned out that the next time they were in James' bed, Tali having moved in, he did indeed treat everything with extra care and check her over for anything missing. Tali enjoyed a good laugh, some tickling, and a lot of passionate lovemaking that night, every time they woke up entangled in one another that night, and another couple rounds in the morning.

* * *

><p><em>Covenant Holy City High Charity, February 18, 3871<em>

"What the hell is this?" the Prophet of Truth exclaimed, gesturing toward the photo of a plaque that the Luminary of the downed Cruiser, the _Rapid Conversion_, had identified as a Forerunner relic. It was in Forerunner writing, different form the glyphs and logos they typically used… but they had no clue what it meant.

"You think I know?" The Prophet of Regret growled back "We should go ask the Oracle what this thing is… the survivors that sent the transmission said it was a large plaque standing on a billboard near a flat, featureless plain with only forest."

In reality, that had been a city with the standard active camo enabled, completely abandoned by the colonists who had already been evacuated. The only part of the settlement not outfitted with an active camo (they'd forgotten) was the billboard that was always planted on the location of landing of the first survey ship. On one side it read "HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE (insert planet name, and date). WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND." On the other… well, the two Prophets couldn't decipher either side, but it was the writing of the other side that the Luminary had identified as relics.

"Oracle, what is this?" the Philologist, the Prophet of Mercy's other position that he carried as a Hierarch, asked, entering the image files into the computer of the Dreadnought. "What does it mean?"

If Mendicant Bias had eyes, they would have bulged with a familiar image his creators had possessed from long past in their history… or forward depending on how one looked at it. It was an image of a plaque, with the inscription "HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PREACE FOR ALL MANKIND."

He replied to the inquiry of these "Prophets" after a pause "FOR EONS I HAVE WATCHED… LISTENED TO YOU MISINTERPRET… THIS IS RECLAIMER… THOSE IT REPRESENTS ARE MY MAKERS…" The Prophets were gaping now "I WILL REJECT MY BIAS AND MAKE AMENDS… MY MAKERS ARE MY MASTERS, I WILL BRING THEM SAFELY TO THE ARK!" The ship began to rumble with the launch sequence that would tear the Dreadnought from High Charity and destroy the Covenant Holy City.

"NO!" Truth shouted, before disconnecting the Oracle's terminal from the Dreadnought's systems.

"What are you doing?" Mercy exclaimed.

"Do you not see, Mercy? This would destroy our civilization, if these humans as they have contacted us as are the true descendants of the Forerunners, we'll be screwed!" Truth exclaimed.

"We'll need to get rid of them." Regret concluded.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Normandy, Cybran Nation border, February 19, 3871<em>

"We're picking up a sensor contact, eighty million kilometres." EDI announced as they dropped in-system "Looks to be a Covenant Light Cruiser, transponder, according to my readings, marks it as the _Unrelenting_. Damn, we didn't have stealth when we jumped, it's picked us up and is coming around to engage, should we take it on?"

"Go ahead EDI."

"Enemy Slipspace engine charging, projected exit trajectory according to charge and slipspace distortion is here." She highlighted a point three thousand kilometres off their starboard side "Turning weapons now. Can't turn the ship, they'd notice, weapons hot… they've jumped!" The Medium Oblivion Cannons, with space engagement capabilities and speeds, opened fire with the Dual Plasma Beams and Heavy Proton Cannons, the beams firing last. They caught the just-decanted Covenant ship completely off-guard. Apparently it had its shields down… oh, it was to fire weapons, how primitive a shield…

The pulse laser fire, hardly stronger than a Brick's Heavy DPL, splashed off the Normandy's heavy shielding as the smaller ship tried to challenge the larger one despite the gouges and craters in its armour. Apparently it was charging its strongest weapon behind its shields, something that looked suspiciously akin to something between a Heavy Oblivion Cannon and Medium OC in power profile and size, though it was purple-coloured. The round splattered off the Normandy's shields as the larger ship yanked its bow around in irritation and let loose a withering hail of Ravager Plasma Chaingun fire. The other weapons cycled again and fired.

The smaller warship's shields blocked the shots as it charged up another Plasma round, which seemed to be magnetically shaped instead of the resonance stability used by Oblivion Cannons according to EDI. This round hit the Normandy and left the shields around ninety percent. It seemed to be roughly 3000 points of the Normandy's shields per shot… insignificant, especially as… "EDI, fire when it's about to drop its shields!" John barked. EDI's avatar nodded.

The next exchange left the little Covenant ship's weapons completely disabled, its bow half crumpled and according to deep Omni scans internal fires burning. Needless to say, it turned and ran from the Coalition Destroyer, its shields going back up as it fled, having only been dropped to fire weapons.

The Normandy leapt to the attack, ploughing into the rear of the Covenant ship with it weapons, smashing away at the smaller ship as it tried to charge up its slipspace drive… That failed as the Normandy rammed the rear shield, the structural field bar showing some red, indicating the fields taking some damage as it smashed into and shattered the shield in that area of the Covenant Light Cruiser, before emptying another volley of Ravager Plasma Chaingun fire into the engine pods of the Covenant ship. The pods blew out before the ship went silent and mostly dark, drifting.

John nodded approvingly at the status readout before glancing at his ship's AI "Is it safe to board, EDI?"

"The Covenant ship's core is cold, they won't even be able to self-destruct." EDI smirked.

"Alright, get Jedore, James and Jacob, humans only this time, we can't involve any other races in this new war…" John growled as he marched out of the bridge "Yet."

They took the Restorer over to the disabled ship and neared a hole in the armour the Normandy burnt for them with a single barrel of a Dual Plasma Beam, before boosting from the Restorer's airlock. QP Packs were excellent for EVA work, able to recharge while you coast and then provide additional thrust, though the safety speed was still a mere 288 km/h. James' comment was "Tali's going to start getting annoyed sooner or later, she hasn't been out on any missions, might start thinking I'm telling you out of over-protectiveness."

John snorted "We just can't involve other races in this new conflict, it's not safe for them, this Covenant would most likely smash through them… their weapons are too strong."

They landed in the Covenant ship securely, entering the artificial gravity field that their armour allowed to affect them after they were fully into the field. James and Jedore shifted the grip on their LBRs while John and Jacob ratcheted their GLMGs menacingly (it was effectively a noisemaker that was there for fun). "Let's get moving." John growled as they advanced into the ship. "Contacts up ahead, two. Use Active Camo, kill them."

"Shields?" Jedore asked as they saw the two bird-like aliens. "Let's test their power…" She extended her LBR to Sniper Mode and fired at the alien's head behind the shield. The round buckler-like energy shield flared angrily with the first shot and buckled with the second, splattering the alien's brains across the floor in less than a second. The other one was squawking and looking around for the source of the fire before its head caved in to a quick smash by the wireframe figure her HUD identified as John.

"Not as difficult as I'd thought to kill." John looked down at his spiked fist's wireframe (Active Camo was effectively invisible, though Coalition optical sensors could still see them) image and noted that his energy recharge rate was indeed slightly slower than normal, but not much. "Let's kill house and grab their data before we scrap this ship."

* * *

><p><em>CSC Kiev, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871_

Over the past few days, her sons had persuaded her to name her flagship after an old Earth battle just like the other BBs and BCs were named "We're picking up an incoming contact, three kilometres keel, consistent with Covenant Battleship specifications. The Cruiser we shot down before was effectively a mothball fleet ship, this one… no, three contacts, Battleships all, won't be the same grade. Expect plasma projectors on them!" Hannah barked over the command channel as the threat board began to light with the Covenant ships decelerating in Slipspace as they entered the system. "Transmit first contact protocols when they decant!"

The three ships dropped far from Harvest as the transmission met them. A smiling, four-mandible face met the Division Commander's hologram. "Your destruction is the will of the Gods, and we are their instrument." It growled through the translation algorithms Hannah had formulated and uploaded to the Coalition's network. The transmission closed as the Covenant ships opened slipspace portals again, disappearing, seemingly just waiting there in slipspace, probably to make them nervous and attack them when they weren't ready. The fact that she could already see where their slipspace journey was predicted to end precluded that though.

"All crew of Executioner Clutch Two prep for evac! Engage them, test them!" She issued the orders via holo-console for the two Battleships and four Battlecruisers to take up a hexagonal formation before placing the two Fleet Carriers in the middle of said formation. "Their slipspace tunnel is projected to end here, fire ASAP."

A volley of affirmatives came from those ships, the crews already buckling into escape Geminis, as they'd found Janus Fighters too fragile and slow for safe evac work, ready to launch away if their ship should be near destruction. Ravager Plasma Chainguns began chattering toward the projected places where the Covenant ships would appear. The Oblivion Cannons, Proton Cannons, Gauss Cannons and so on fired next, Sonance Artillery guns roared silently in space before Loa Tactical Missiles zipped toward the estimated slipspace exit area. Zealot SIMs were sitting ready in their launchers for any enemy fighters while Restorers, Geminis, Shockers and Revenants boiled out of the launch bays of the Carriers, ready to fight.

The three Covenant Battleships appeared almost exactly at the predicted location just before the near-invisible (in space, lasers were effectively invisible as there was little dust to diffract them) Heavy Microwave Lasers lashed out at the massive ships. Their shields shrugged off the first diffuse volley before Hannah selected the entire Executioner Clutch and targeted the lead Battleship, including all the small craft in her section box as well, since the enemy wasn't launching fighters.

The enemy fired back before the Coalition ships could fire again, pulse lasers smashing up against the shields effectively ineffectively (despite being much more powerful than those on the Light Cruiser John had met days ago) and "Plasma Torpedoes" as the Covenant referred to them coming out through the shields before they slammed back up. That still left enough time for the Heavy Microwave Lasers, having received further upgrades over the years, to gouge deep into the thick hull armour. The plasma torpedoes impacted on the shields of the Coalition warships one after another despite evasive manoeuvres… and didn't do all that much, except take down two Battle Cruisers' shields and scorch the fields slightly, despite being much stronger than the torpedoes fired by the Light Cruiser John had captured days ago, their main Intel source. It was ominous that the Coalition ships could even be targeted, the Battleships had better sensors than the Covenant's smaller ships…

The next volley from Executioner Clutch Two smashed into the shields of the leading Battleship just before they dropped, the crews of the Executioner Swarm all looking forward to cutting the enemy ship apart… until the Plasma Projectors fired. Revenants, Shockers, Geminis and Restorers darted in under where the shield bubble would be for close-range runs. Explosions of Quark Bombs, Proton Bombs and missiles blossomed across the purple material of the hull in a rippling tide of blasts while the Plasma Projectors kept firing in their three-second burst.

The Battleships and Fleet Carriers took the brunt of the fire on their shields, protective bubbles flaring and collapsing under the thirty-six beams that lashed at them. Structural fields were taxed to the limit, and on two Escort Carriers, failed, just as the crews of those ships launched away in their escape ASFs. Those two ships went dead as the plasma projectors finally cut into and slowly through them. A BC nearby shot off its Geminis just before shuddering and beginning to drift, a hole gouged in its thick armour halfway through the ship's internals fro the remains of the Plasma Projector burst that had burnt away the structural fields.

The lead Covenant Battleship's Plasma Projectors wound down much more abruptly than the others', courtesy of being targeted and blown up by flights of Shockers and Revenants alike. Secondary explosions from backed-up plasma made the ship tremble as its shields went back up, the Pulse Lasers being located and attacked one by one by the Strategic Bombers now stuck under the solid shield bubble. A number of the bombers went down to hostile fire, but those losses were insignificant and could be replaced in mere seconds by a Fleet Carrier. A fresh wave of aircraft, just built, flooded from the Fleet Carriers and joined the battle, the lead Battleship finally relenting and turning back, switching off shields and slamming them up again just as the bombers started moving outside its shield radius. Most of its weapons had been disabled, save a few of the Plasma Torpedo launchers and a few Pulse Lasers.

The Executioner Clutch, now down to two Battleships, two Fleet Carriers, three Battle Cruisers and four Escort Carriers wasn't about to let it limp away. A deluge of Loa Tactical Missiles flooded toward the target. The other two Battleships hastily dropped shields and began firing at the missiles with their Pulse Lasers.

The nasty surprise was that the missiles when targeted by a TMD would split just before the TMD round/laser would burn through the armour to the core. Sure, the three smaller missiles were weaker but it at least guaranteed some damage. Covenant shields flared under the pressure of continuous bombardment by Phason Lasers, Heavy Microwave Lasers, and the hundreds of Loa Tactical Missile and sub-missile detonations as the Battleship limped away.

Hannah made the decision, jumping in Clutches Three and Four in front of the lumbering behemoth of a Covenant ship and ordering all weapons to fire on the Battleship. Now caught between two fronts with waves of fighters among them and closing in, the Covenant ships chose to barrel forward toward Clutch Two, hoping to achieve a breakthrough by volleying every weapon they had.

A Fleet Carrier in the way was slashed up viciously once its shields collapsed and exploded with a huge blast of the Paragon going off. No crewmen died since they'd already gotten far enough in specially outfitted Geminis and were rendezvousing with Clutch One, the flagship Clutch, some distance from the battle, a distance not even the Battleships' sensors nor weapons could reach, the same was true of the Coalition ships there, though they could contribute in the form of small craft. A Battleship took the brunt of ten beams and died, raked by secondary explosions, being sliced apart by the beams of the Plasma Projectors. It would not be able to self-repair, would need a Gantry to reconstruct, but the Fleet Crew Death Count in a corner of Hannah's display still stayed firmly at a big, round 0.

Apparently, the three Battleships had decided to call in Carrier reinforcements to counteract the swarms of starfighters that were swarming them to death, since they did not have adequate Anti-fighter capabilities, unlike Coalition warships or even some units. After all, CZARs are heavily armed against air units simply because massed ASF strafing runs can be so deadly, in this case, it was Strategic Bombers, T3 Gunships, and Aerospace Superiority Fighters, and they were sustaining manageable losses from the pulse lasers, but that was beside the point. Two towering slipspace portals opened just before two huge, hooked prows came through, followed by giant, bulbous bodies…

"Covenant Assault Carrier classification ships inbound!" Hannah's helmsman barked as they eclipsed the three Battleships.

Hannah growled low in her throat "Damn it, all ships engage! Carriers, start cranking out ASFs NOW! All weapons free, lock anything you can onto that wounded Battleship!" One of Clutch Two's remaining Battle Cruisers shuddered and died in a series of secondary explosions in the silence of space as thousands of aerospace combat craft i.e. starfighters roared toward the swarm unleashed by the Assault Carriers. "Seraph class fighters, weaker than our Wraiths" Those were a T1 Fighter/Attacker able to cloak but not use active stealth "are in durability, a bit better in firepower, we'll smoke them." She remarked as the first, damaged Battleship finally collapsed under a hail of fire and a volley of glowing Sonance rounds punched the hull apart as Heavy Microwave Laser beams slashed the purple plates. She then ordered all ships to fire on one Assault Carrier with all weapons, jumping them over to her side of the battle, at ninety degrees from Harvest for the Covenant ships. The sheer size of the Assault Carrier meant the other ships were eclipsed from firing on the Executioner Swarm at least for now, and Hannah took the opportunity to target even Zealot SIMs at the Assault Carrier.

Another two ships from Clutch Two breaking up after being slashed by plasma projectors reminded her to cycle her formation, since this damn thing seemed like it wasn't about to die anytime soon. The other Covenant ships were coming around their large friend, meaning Hannah needed to change her position…

Hannah Shepard ordered a charge, Ravagers on all ships chattering away as the other weapons fired, stopping just short of the Assault Carrier's shield bubble so it could at least protect them from the straight-line firing of the Plasma Projectors on the other ships. Seraph fighters were dying by the hundreds outside the thick hulls of the behemoths that duked it out high over the abandoned colony of Harvest. The kill count between the two sides was: Innumerable… to none… so far.

* * *

><p><em>Usze Tahamee's Seraph, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871<em>

Usze Tahamee was, for once, scared for her life.

Yes, to all those fools who did not realize what the fact that Usze was larger and stronger (and had significantly wider hips) than the average male meant—those fools included her best friend, N'tho Sraom, who was almost enough to match up to her—Usze was a female. In the Covenant Military, Sangheili females were rare, but those that did serve, well… they were mostly afflicted with one or more embarrassing conditions that rendered them infertile. Usze had been good enough to get an invite to the Honour Guard of the Hierarchs, despite being female, but she was set to prove that she could handle real combat just as well as males could. Sure, they were better at agility, fitting into small spaces i.e. Covenant warships, and slightly at endurance, but she had strength on her side, so the difficulties Sangheili females had in fitting into warship halls (they had to stoop, whereas males could _mostly_ just walk…except for her buddy N'tho) did NOT make her an inferior soldier.

But no matter how much "NOT INFERIOR" to the males she was, Usze had to admit to herself that she was on the verge of shitting her armour—claret, an unusual colour, simply because one, she was female, and two, she was good enough to be Spec Ops—at the sheer superiority these HUGE-ASS "fighters" had over the Seraphs. _And this is why nimbleness doesn't count for shit when "power overwhelming" is around!_ She thought as she barely pulled out of the way of a burst of laser fire that was merely absorbed by another hostile fighter like it was nothing. Her sensors were barely picking them up with the stealth they were using, and the only reason she even saw the second fighter with its even better stealth was the fact that it had absorbed its friend's fire.

They had expected the obliteration of these "humans" to be a quick job, jump the three Battleships in, glass the planet, and go home before dinner was cold. They'd never expected to even need to deploy Assault Carriers, let alone face an enemy who used such hordes of mini-starships (starfighters were too small and weak to describe these things). They could kill a Seraph with a single missile or a few lasers—or whatever that cannon thing on some of them was—bolts or rounds. It was a bloodbath, her entire wing was down to a handful of pilots before they had even realized there was an enemy to engage… "It's about time!" She exclaimed as the sensor feed patched in and the Seraph pilots could actually begin to see the enemy fighters… that blotted out the stars.

"Well Forerunners be damned…" Her old friend, N'tho, remarked over the comm.

"Agreed…" Usze said as she barrel-rolled out of the way of more deadly fire, the missiles detonating near her shaking her craft and setting off shield damage alarms. "Damn it, our fighters can't beat them! Only our capital ships can fight these damned things on anything approaching even odds!" She exclaimed.

The comm. came to life again "This is Supreme Commander Thel Vadamee, of the Fleet of Particular Justice, recalling all Seraphs to carriers, we cannot hurt their fighters effectively without using plasma torpedoes!" As if on cue five contacts vanished from her display as plasma torpedoes struck them. "Live to fight another day, brave pilots! Live to honour the lost!"

Usze smirked, baring her sharp rows of teeth, the Supreme Commander had always been good at getting people to do what he wanted. Most Sangheili would have been stupid enough to fight to the death, so the Supreme commander had to make them see things his way, to live for honour instead of dying in vain.

She sure wasn't objecting, especially as, after she landed her Seraph, she discovered the tail end half-slagged and that N'tho was the only other survivor of their squadron. He had survived the astoundingly high losses this day, but he almost didn't survive the crushing hug of relief his old friend gave him. Needless to say, the other survivors nearly fell on their asses laughing at the comical way he was waving his arms around and making choking noises while his friend was crushing him to his (everyone still thought Usze was male) chest and exclaiming in relief.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Kiev, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871_

"They're targeting our fighters with plasma torpedoes!" One of her officers yelled.

"Damn it, the Assault Carriers are too tough, we're taking too many losses…" Hannah said through gritted teeth. They'd lost no lives yet, though several were in critical condition, medical stasis technology would keep them alive long enough to be saved. "Fleet, recall all fighters and Quantum Jump to the other side of Harvest."

"Recalling, ETA one minute."

That meant two more volleys of fire from the enemy ships that she was again facing edge-on, having jumped "below" them when they'd used a semicircular formation on her. She'd lost three of her eight Battleships, two of eight Fleet Carriers, nine of sixteen Battle Cruisers and fifteen out of twenty-four Escort Carriers plus innumerable fighters, yet she'd only killed two Covenant Battleships while slowly wearing down this Assault Carrier… The Third Executioner Swarm jumped, and the three remaining Covenant ships limped toward the planet ahead after sending out Seraphs to check the area for survivors.

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment Flagship, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871<em>

"I'm not sure how much of that we could have taken." The other Shipmaster was saying. "Our shields were straining, these humans are worthy foes indeed. They may have weaker ships, but they have many of them, and together they are strong."

"Too few of our brothers understand that these days." Rtas Vadumee shook his head before looking over to his old friend, Supreme Commander Thel Vadamee.

Thel nodded "Agreed, you did well, brother, to have survived such an onslaught. Their fighter craft are formidable, to have wiped out so many of our Seraphs." Thousands had been lost, with under a hundred enemy fighter kills "The bomber types… they disable our weapons far too easily, and the flak weaponry they use cut our Seraphs apart in massed numbers. However, Capital Ship to Capital Ship we can beat them, we destroyed nearly half their defensive fleet already and severely damaged several more of their capital ships. Let us approach the planet, nab the Relic and leave this accursed place. The next time we engage these 'humans' we shall bring stronger fleets, not underestimate them as we have today." Vadumee finished with a growl. "Are sensors picking up anything more?" He asked his sensor officer.

"We're approaching orbit over the Relic and aren't picking up anything yet."

Thel nodded again "Good, Shipmaster, how are the Huragok on your ship doing?"

The Shipmaster shook his head sadly "Effecting repairs as best they can… but we've lost too many shield generators, there may not be enough left… and when those five bomber-type craft got under our shields… we had to jettison two of our ten modules. Things are looking pretty bad, I hope we can nab the Relic quickly."

Thel nodded gravely "Good, Shipmaster, at least you are honest with me, unlike many others would have been…"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Kiev, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871_

While the Covenant was heading down to look for the primitive dig site, Hannah Shepard's fleet was rapidly repairing on the other side of Harvest, courtesy of the Fleet Carriers' onboard Paragons providing Mass and Energy. The lost ships couldn't be rebuilt without a Ship Gantry, but the rest were repaired up to full armour, structural fields (which were projected through and somewhat relied on armour) and shields, plus full complements of small craft, focusing on .

The moment repairs completed, Hannah plotted the jump coordinates above the Covenant fleet and activated all the fully stealthed and active-camo-ed orbital defences in the area. After the first show of lights and the confusion that ensued, she hit the jump button.

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment Flagship, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871<em>

The ship rocked violently, throwing N'tho off his bunk, where he'd been resting momentarily. The ship lurched the other way, the artificial gravity seemingly going haywire, just right for N'tho to wake his best friend, who was taking the opportunity for rest, up rather awkwardly. Usze glared up at N'tho for a few moments before the ship trembled again and he clamoured off her, realizing the glare meant _get off me or you will be forcibly removed from my body and shoved face-first in the nearest Brute Chopper I can find_.

It was embarrassing, for any female, to find yourself pinned under your _very_ masculine best friend, in what was generally considered a sexual position, upon waking up. Usze clamoured up as well and began pulling on what parts of her armour she'd removed. N'tho was fitting his chest plates over his head quickly while blabbering "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to do that, I'm not… you know… homo or anything." He shuddered slightly as he slipped on his boots and the telltale sounds of battle orders began blaring over the PA.

* * *

><p>AN: I do not share the aforementioned view, but in Sangheili society, well… I have to write realistically, don't I?

* * *

><p>Usze scoffed and waved it off "It's okay, bud." <em>He still hasn't realized I'm female yet, good, he's the only friend I have here, don't want him to get repulsed by the revelation…<em>

They ran down to the briefing area where they were told to simply wait for repelling boarders and to hang near the escape pods just in case. In other words, wait and watch footage of the battle by their HUDs' PIP windows, and talk. "How did those things ambush us?" Usze said as she watched the action footage of unseen sources firing weaker versions of plasma projectors at them in fast-forward, then other sources, much further away, open up with wide, continuous beams, and dodging plasma projector beams… somehow. Multiple plasma torpedoes managed to destroy one of the big flying saucers, easily half the length of a cruiser, which had been hacking at the Shadow of Intent. However, most of the ship-things… more likely to be orbital defences according to comm. chatter were focusing on the other, more damaged Assault Carrier.

"Jump to slipspace, the Relic is not worth this, Shipmaster! We shall return with more ships, more soldiers, and reclaim what is ours by right!" Thel Vadamee could be clearly heard yelling over the comm. line to the other Assault Carrier, which complied with his command and jumped away just after flashes of light announced the return of the fleet they had fought before, closing in formation at high speed, seemingly undamaged now as opposed to their battered states only minutes ago.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Kiev, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, High orbit over Harvest, February 22, 3871_

"They ran, we've won… no casualties, all civilians evacuated…" Hannah stated simply before adding "for now. Call in a Ship Gantry, it's time to up the ante, I can sense that this place is to be the place of many battles to come." She looked back at the battered surface of Harvest, scars from Plasma Projector beams that had missed were visible from orbit, diffuse lines of angry red molten glass, as opposed to the concentrated areas of melt associated with strategic missiles. "But at what cost? We don't know where their planets are, we can't ACU blitz them… and they might just use those Plasma Projectors against our ACUs…" She murmured to herself before toggling the comm. channel "Doctor Brackman, we need to intensify trails on the new ship classes, and I think we need to re-class our warships, quickly."

The log read:

FIRST BATTLE OF HARVEST

Coalition Losses: 3 of 8 Battleships, 2 of 8 Fleet Carriers, 9 of 16 Battle Cruisers, 15 of 24 Escort Carriers, 200+ starfighters, ZERO DEAD.

Covenant Losses: 1 of 1 Scout Corvette, 2 of 2 Light Cruisers, 2 of 3 Battleships, 0 of 2 Assault Carriers, 2000+ starfighters, EST. THOUSANDS DEAD.

* * *

><p>NUMBERS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: (NOTE: CLASSIFICATIONS WILL SOON CHANGE)<p>

* * *

><p>3860 CSC Fleet Carrier:<p>

Onboard Paragon, 1 Gate, 6 ACU max.

Launches in flights of 20 (T3, 30 T2, 60 T1), carries 32 flights. Build Rate of 4000, 640 T3 Aircraft cap (or 960 T2 or 1920 T1)

1000m x 700m x 800m (l x w x h)

600 minute or 10 hour build time in 3860 Ship Gantry

Mostly AA Duty

1 Heavy Microwave Laser (chin)

1 Sonance Artillery Gun (Topside, same as on Emissary)

2 Dual Plasma Beam Cannon (Topside, behind, to the sides of and a bit above Sonance)

8 Ravagers

80 Electron Flak Batteries (same as a Burst Master T2 Flak structure)

72 Zealot SIM Launchers

29 Will-O-The-Wisp TMD

24 Zapper TMDs

4 Guardian SMD Silos

* * *

><p>3860 CSC Battleship:<p>

3 Heavy Microwave Laser

4 Phason Laser

4 Heavy Oblivion Cannon

1 Mavor Artillery Gun

4 Plasma Accelerator (same as Novax Satellite weapon)

20 Dual Plasma Beam

35 Ravagers

6 Loa TM Racks (12 Each)

28 Electron Flak Batteries

22 Zealot SIM Launchers

25 Will-O-The-Wisp TMD

34 Zapper TMDs

4 Guardian SMD Silos

* * *

><p>AN: As we can see, the Coalition still ends up losing more ships usually, but the best thing about small crews and tough, small, nimble escape vessels… SURVIVABILITY.


	2. Border Skirmishes

A/N: 3860 Ship Classification "Corvette" is termed a 3860 Corvette. A ship which by 3860 classification is a Battleship will be termed 3860 Battleship. Expect terms such as "3872 Ship Gantry" to turn up soon with re-classification of ships. A Ship Gantry, the old 3860 model, might be called "3872 Mobile Dock" as a primary name after 3872, with a Secondary Name of "3860 Ship Gantry" to denote what it began with for a designation.

For the record, the ACU count is a "can carry" thing, usually they don't carry any except for flagships, which generally carry from 1 to 4 depending on the commander and their rank (subordinate count), affiliation, and personal preferences. So no, no ACUs were lost, no lives either, what a let-down, given a few days a 3860-model Ship Gantry can replenish the Executioner Swarm back to full strength, while it would take a week at least, I'd think, for the Covenant to fully affect repairs on their battered Battleship and damaged Assault Carrier.

As for why no one notices Usze, that'll be explained soon if not here. And "Yolona Oss" is indeed the correct spelling for the missile. It's not even comparable to a NOVA, since the only thing the Coalition can possibly deploy that can compare to a NOVA i.e. utterly dwarf it, as in instead of wrecking a planet, making it uninhabitable, it can shatter a dozen in one firing… is another Black Sun, and that's too dangerous to fire.

Rings story not personal experience, someone I know knows several people who've lost their ring fingers to it. One was jumping a fence, two others basketball, one a truck driver slamming his truck door too hard… all sorts of things.

Yes, there will be lots of huge space battles, deal with it. I noticed that the Hallessi System for the Race IS Epsilon Indi, where Harvest is supposed to be, so I moved Harvest over a few thousand light-years. Would like to note the Covenant is now most likely Tier 1.9, the Coalition of Species is likely a Tier 1.2 Civilization, as they can readily terraform worlds, do pin-point FTL through a variety of means, fabricate super-dense materials (proton based warheads) etc. though no one has tried creating mega-structures like the Ark or worlds like Onyx yet. However, the Forerunner Tech Achievement Scale most likely excluded Quantum-based tech for certain reasons that will be revealed later, hence the bar is not accurate.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Border Skirmishes<p>

_CSC Bunker Hill, 4__th__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, Cybran Nation Border System, February 24, 3871_

Unlike Hannah Shepard, Seth-Thauum preferred using Fleet Carriers to Battleships for his flagship. FCs could pour out hundreds of Strategic Bombers in but moments and along with their already-significant weapons array could muster far higher damage rates than Battleships could hope to match. They also had stronger shields, though much weaker fields and armour than Battleships.

He had received emergency orders to deploy his ships, all four Executioner Clutches that made up his Executioner Swarm, to this system in preparation for an incoming Covenant scout fleet. It had been discovered much to Hannah Shepard's dismay that her units had not had passive stealth emitters enabled, hence they could actually sort of be detected (except the Geminis) by the enemy fighters, despite offering slightly better shield recharge rates. The Covenant capital ships seemed to have short-range Omni-style sensor capabilities, but careful inspection of the two Battleship wrecks revealed they would not be able to detect the Twilight-class Stealth Emitters implemented across the Coalition's major colonies as soon as the Covenant War, as it was called now, began.

Therefore the cities on this system's habitable planet would be thoroughly undetectable to this incoming Covenant fleet. He was feeling rather confident that his eighty-four ships could tear the Covenant fleet a new one before retreating if not destroy them outright, though he was prepared to take losses. "Order all personnel to evac Geminis" He growled, moving to the bridge Gemini of the Fleet Carrier himself "ETA of Covenant fleet one minute, launch all starfighters but keep them inside our shields."

The similarity between the big reptilians, apparently military commanders, of the Covenant and his own kind were interesting, though they were more akin to the Protoss of Aiur physically. Both Sangheili, coined "Elites" by the media, and Seraphim were by human reckoning reptilian-like species as the Drell were, both had leathery skin where there were no scales or plates, and both had mandibles, though Seraphim also had jaws. Protoss were more physically similar to Sangheili in size and mass (the former larger) but they were more photosynthetic than predatory, which made a huge difference between the four fingers, two being thumbs, digitigrade legs and broad shoulders and chests. Seth shook off the thought and looked around at his mixed human-Seraphim crew as they attached their armour to the seats magnetically and via crash webbing. Good, they were ready.

And not a moment too soon, as the ship vibrated slightly with the opening salvo of the enemy's Plasma Projectors, which would have cut through any air unit short of an Ahwassa he could have put between them, making him happy he saved his starfighters for this… "CHARGE!" He bellowed as he selected all his Revenants and Shockers and targeted them toward the foremost Covenant ship, a Carrier, while sending all his Geminis, Coronas (for their flak-type capabilities, as Iazynes had flak-type weapons, but not as much splash area, despite being more durable than Coronas) and Restorers on an Attack-move order to a point just ahead of the advancing Covenant formation.

Both groups of starfighters were moving far below their maximum possible speeds, staying in formations. The Covenant loosed plasma torpedoes at the oncoming fighters, good, it was time to see if his strategy had worked out…

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment Flagship, February 24, 3871<em>

The Huragok were busy repairing armour damage to the outer hull, or had been shipped over to the two much more damaged ships as they rendezvoused with the rest of the Retribution Detachment. Usze and N'tho found themselves suddenly bored, without much to do but go down to the sparring rings for a round or two or the mess to talk. They chose the latter, since they were evenly matched in the ring and the other males complained that they were "As oversized and overpowered as females" when it came to the smaller rings they both liked. When they sat down, N'tho promptly joined the conversation at their table, something about females in the Fleet, while Usze ate quietly, holding her steak in her lower mandibles while shredding the meat with her upper ones and rolling it in with her tongue.

"Females in the Fleet, hah, since the Covenant formed only males have served in the Sangheili military!" Someone, not N'tho, called. It was Kip, an old friend of N'tho's

"I don't know, I kind of like the idea of having females in the Fleet again…" N'tho said slowly. "I mean, sure, they're bigger and tougher than us, and they'd be kind of uncomfortable in the hallways, but don't Mgalekgolo do fine? Hell, I've bumped my head going under a door more than a few times."

"N'tho, you're the size and mass of an average female, hell, you're stronger than the average female." Someone who Usze wasn't looking at and didn't recognize replied to N'tho. "Endurance and agility matter a lot on the battlefield, and females aren't as enduring or as agile as we are…"

The Spec Ops soldier rolled his eyes next to Usze "It'll reduce the number of homosexual males, that's for sure, and look at the starfighters we faced a couple days ago! They were so overpowered that even though we were much more agile, they might as well have been capital ships swatting us like flies!"

"Are you female?" The question came out of the blue, and Usze glanced up from her food in shock.

"What? You gotta be kidding me man!" N'tho had nearly choked on his vegetables "Just because I'm bigger and stronger than a lot of other males doesn't mean I have to be female!" He was waving his arms around, still holding his drumstick almost comically, before he realized the meat would have been shaken off soon if he didn't stick it in his mouth and rake the meat off the bones.

Usze chuckled, covering up her momentary surprise that someone had asked that question near her. It seemed Females serving on Covenant Fleet ships was such an absurd concept no one even thought she might actually be female. Hiding under someone's snout, in the open, was often the best way to hide. True, she did get a cubicle thanks to her Spec Ops status, but that was the only thing really necessary to maintain her secret. "Relax, N'tho, don't mind him, he's probably just jealous of how many breeding requests you and I got last year." That went to show how much females were not expected to be in the military, since just because she wore armour a lot of females assumed her to be male. Big, strong, virile males were considered desirable, so since she was slightly above average by female standards and nearly towered over most males… it had been almost embarrassing how long the list of e-mails had been. When N'tho, who'd received a similarly long list (the Supreme Commander himself had come down to their quarters to comment that the list was almost as long as his own) had been agonizing over how to respond, she'd given him a simple solution…

Technically, she'd given him two simple options when he'd consulted her on what to do. Number one was as a joke: to declare himself homosexual. Sure, it wasn't completely looked down upon per se, but it was expected that young ones would leave that stage with time. The second option was to reply that he was saving himself for "that special someone" (in her opinion the idea was pure bullshit), as portrayed in trashy romance novels teenagers often enjoyed. Needless to say, N'tho had opted for the second one, while Usze had been totally honest and said she preferred males. Sure, she might be sterile but that didn't mean she was completely asexual… though her sexual experience was, depressingly, roughly on par with N'tho's.

"I am not jealous!" Kip barked "I am merely pointing out that you didn't accept any of them, so, found your 'special someone' yet, brother?" They were brothers in arms "How about you, Usze?"

Before she could answer, the PA spoke "Another engagement has broken out between us of the glorious Covenant and the dishonourable humans!" The hologram of the battle sprang up in the display in the center of the Mess. Everyone went silent simultaneously to watch the task force exit slipspace and loose plasma projectors at the Coalition ships standing before them, already in battle formation.

"It seems like they knew we were coming." Usze hissed to N'tho.

The male nodded before frowning "They even had all their starfighters launched, and seem to be massing more by the minute…"

* * *

><p><em>4<em>_th__ Executioner Swarm, Cybran Nation Border System, February 24, 3871_

The T2 Asylum Mobile Shield Generators had one major advantage over Athanahs and Parafields, though the former could also hover and the latter hide underwater. Both the others could be employed to provide more protection an Asylum could muster, but the Asylum was the only one with a totally omni-directional drive, hence it was the most space-capable.

The first plasma torpedo to meet the formations of starfighters smashed into, detonated against, and popped a shield bubble without doing further damage. The next few did the same all along the line, instead of cutting down starfighters as the Covenant had expected, they popped shield bubbles and did nothing else… except make the wings of starfighters accelerate to maximum speeds. They formed staggered formations of Aerospace Superiority Fighters, then a wave of Strategic Bombers and finally the Restorer T3 AA Gunships, the most durable of the lot, bringing up the rear.

The ASFs opened up on the oncoming tide of Seraph fighters as the Seraphs fired on the few they could detect, all of which were Coronas, since they couldn't sense the Geminis. The agile three-winged Coronas swung about and began running back toward the Executioner Swarm, boosting to top speed before allowing themselves to drift, only accelerated by the omni-directional portion of their drive capability as they sprayed flak-style AA fire back toward the pursuers.

The Geminis, instead of going in for stealth strikes against the Cruiser and Destroyer screens of the Covenant fleet, swung back behind the Seraphs, many of which were firing about trying to seek out the effectively invisible, active-stealthed Aerospace Superiority Fighters. The result was predictable…

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment Flagship, February 24, 3871<em>

"The Supreme Commander just ordered a retreat of the Seraphs to Fleet Air Patrol patterns!" A comm. officer exclaimed over the PA, murmurs ran through the Mess Hall. It was considered the height of dishonour by many to retreat, even though the Supreme Commander had dictated when he gained the rank that lives are NOT to be foolishly thrown away. Thel Vadamee had also impressed upon them that there was only honour in death in battle if it had a purpose beyond, as he'd said it at the time in near-prophetic manner "Trying to wave your dick around and to slap an enemy you can't see into believing you have a larger penis with said penis."

"He's sending in more ships to distract the local enemy fleets on a different front." Another comms officer stated for briefing purposes. "Nothing else we have in the area can get there fast enough…"

"Crap, I've got a nasty feeling we're about to lose all twelve ships." Usze entwined her mandibles nervously. For a human, it would be biting your bottom lip, with how her upper mandibles were holding the lower ones between themselves and her upper jaw.

"No… impossible, they'd jump out." Kip waved it off.

"I think Usze might just be right, they've got fifty-six of their ships and a swarm of their tough-as-hell starfighters. Those can really deal out a lot of pain quickly in numbers, against even our capital ships, and I'm not sure the battle group will be able to jump out with our Sangheili stubbornness, not that I'm not proud of it, but still…" N'tho said slowly as they watched the flashes of light between the two fleets.

"Well, there goes a Cruiser's shields…" Usze reported dryly "I really think we're the only ones with an actual survival instinct…"

"Does anyone else besides me and Usze think the Fleet of Particular Justice, at least the Retribution Detachment, is for and especially for Sangheili who think dying pointlessly is dishonourable?" Kip asked loudly as a Cruiser began breaking up under concentrated fire from the enemy, a few starfighter bombs finally blowing it apart as the other ships manoeuvred frantically, trying to evade the speedy attack craft as best they could, considering the sheer numbers of the swarm.

There was a loud chorus of agreement at Kip's words, apparently, that was why the Retribution Detachment crew had been hand-picked by the Supreme Commander and every Sangheili onboard interviewed personally by him or Rtas Vadumee. They manned two Assault Carriers and a few assorted Battleships and Battlecruisers, and were often sent in as reinforcements when other aspects of the Fleet of Particular Justice got pummelled, for example those three Battleships from Detachment One. Yes, the Retribution detachment was the only detachment of Thel Vadamee's fleet to get a special name most of the time, simply because they were both Elite forces and especially picked for their sensibility. The Supreme Commander was a practical male, so many of his clan's elders had had second thoughts after his election as kaidon, he'd defeated their assassins without breaking a sweat and evicted them all from the Vadam state. Some had claimed it foolish to let the shamed elders leave alive, but Thel had said that "Enough is enough" and that had been that.

* * *

><p><em>4<em>_th__ Executioner Swarm, Cybran Nation Border System, February 24, 3871_

Seth-Thauum cycled his front-line ships as another rippling volley from the enemy's plasma projectors left the fields of the Battle Cruisers damaged. They moved back in the formation, screened by the shields of Fleet Carriers between them and the enemy while they recharged their shields. Battleships filled in their positions as the center pieces of the line.

The enemy unleashed a new tide of Plasma Torpedoes, and they seemed about to just fly past the fleet… until they turned and smashed into two BCs near the rear of the formation. The plasma rounds burst into and through their weakened fields and plating moments after the ships detected the threats and the crews launched themselves via Geminis. "Damn, they have guidance, try countering with TMDs!" Seth ordered broadcasting the new intel over the Coalition's military network at the same time, the two BCs that had been targeted by the concentrated fire already going dead, internal explosions reducing them to burnt-out husks.

The starfighter duel was going well, his units cutting the Covenant seraph fighters to tatters with absurd ease, and his mobile shield emitters were screening the fleet's main battle line, especially whichever Battleship seemed most vulnerable to a good volley at the moment. Plasma Projector fire would be enough to pop through eight or so (since popping a shield bubble actually resulted in a slight reduction of the damage power of a round that pierces it) of the relatively weak shield bubbles, but that was no matter, they at least provided some momentary deflection of the plasma beams and cut down on their damage. The best thing? The enemy's Plasma Projectors required THIRTY seconds for recharge, Asylums could reboot their 5000-point (by the newest numerical rating systems) shields from broken in TWENTY.

Evasive manoeuvres only added to the Covenant's poor aim, thanks to passive stealth and active camo installed on all units, despite only a few having active stealth systems and even fewer with cloaking capability, even the stationary cloaking used on the Selen Combat Scouts.

The fifty-four remaining Coalition warships dwindled down to fifty with the loss of a Battleship to an overwhelming volley of plasma projector rounds and the failure of two Escort Carriers and another BC. The Covenant ships were advancing while the Coalition ships moved back, well, nine of them were, two, a Destroyer and one of the three Carriers present, were faltering, dropping out of formation under flurries of Strategic Bomber hits to their now unprotected hulls, cratering and finally cracking through their armour to destroy the ships.

Mavor fire was smashing away at the shields of the other ships from the remaining seven Battleships, and they were raked by more Strategic Bomber runs and other weapons fire from the Coalition formation. Two Cruisers began to slow down, falling out of formation before succumbing to Mavor ammunition smashing into and blasting through their armour plating, detonating the anti-matter payloads contained within the heavily-armoured artillery shells inside the hulls. Those ships literally flew apart as more Sonance Artillery, Oblivion Cannon, Gauss Cannon, Loa Tactical Missile, Ravager and Plasma fire smashed up against the shields of the remaining ships, targeting one after the next.

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment Flagship, February 24, 3871<em>

"Well, there goes a scout flotilla." N'tho growled sourly as the last of the Covenant ships broke up. It was an embarrassing defeat in an attempt to probe the enemy's strength. They were strong indeed… only seven losses against the Covenant's twelve, granted, they were using larger ships, capital ships, but…

The second battle wasn't going well either, another one of the enemy's Battle Fleets, as the Covenant troops had taken to calling the four-unit, fifty-six ship formations, meeting a detachment of eight heavier Covenant ships, CCS-class Battle Cruisers all. It had been supposedly a distraction thing for the sensor station in-system, but the enemy fleet had jumped in right after the Covenant did and opened fire, tying up those ships for now "For once, I think the covenant has engaged a worthy enemy, though we haven't been able to find any of their colonies yet, they seem to like putting orbital defences around random habitable planets, perhaps staking their territory?" Usze wondered.

"You know, Usze Tahamee…" A voice called from the next mess table over, and the Mess went silent as Shipmaster Rtas Vadumee spoke after finishing his lunch "I think you're right, either that, or they have far better stealth technology than we ever imagined, we've picked up absolutely no signs of habitation in the worlds we've scouted so far."

* * *

><p><em>2<em>_nd__ Executioner Swarm, Another Cybran Nation Border System, February 24, 3871_

Grand Crusader Ariel Williams only glanced over the report from Seth's Executioner Swarm before rearranging her warships to provide more adequate shield coverage from the plasma projectors if not the homing plasma torpedoes the enemy used. Her ships were keeping pace with the enemy advance by backing up, maintaining the distance between the two fleets for convenience of dodging plasma projector fire if nothing else. Seth had destroyed three enemy Carriers, four Cruisers and five Destroyers, only losing a single Battleship, three BCs and two ECs in the process, not bad…

She'd lost a Fleet Carrier and a Battleship already in exchange for one and a half enemy Battlecruisers… well, two now that the one that had lost shields was being swarmed by strategic bombers tearing it to scrap… One of her BCs brewed up next to her flagship, burning itself out and drifting out of formation "toward" the accelerating Covenant ships, this was beginning to turn into a pretty fun chase, and if her estimates were correct, her ships were more nimble…

"On my mark, All Ships decelerate, Clutches One and Two, split Fleet Left, Three and Four, Fleet Right, roll to present all main weapons, flip to keep weapons trained." She ordered before yelling the last word "MARK!" She could have done it via her strategic display, but it was usually considered more polite to actually say the orders instead of moving the ships with no warning.

The six remaining Covenant warships barrelled past the Coalition ships, trailed by hundreds of Loa Tactical Missiles and plastered with all sorts of munitions. The Covenant ships started wide turns to come around and engage, and so Ariel ordered her fleet to split again to hammer both branches of the enemy from above and below the ecliptic at once, since there were after all four Executioner Clutches in an Executioner Swarm.

One of Executioner Clutch One's Fleet Carriers went critical under three Plasma Projector beams and a hail of Plasma Torpedoes, rocking the formation slightly and flaring shields with the blast of the Paragon, however contained the blazing hulk might have kept it. None of the crew had been lost for they had ejected long ago, pretty much as soon as the structural fields had gone down to half. The remaining ships continued firing on the Covenant ships, wearing down and through their shields before slashing into their hulls in fury. The two-kilometre Battlecruisers didn't stand much of a chance with so many only slightly inferior capital ships lighting them up, and one by one the remaining six went down, taking a total of six Escort Carriers, four Battle Cruisers, three Fleet Carriers and two Battleships with them through the whole course of the battle. The ships and starfighters could be replaced easily enough, what really mattered was that her crew casualty counter was still at a big fat zero for deaths.

Eight Covenant Battle Cruisers annihilated for a cost of fifteen ships, not too bad. Her report would read:

FIRST BATTLE OF XI BOÖTIS A

Coalition Losses: 2 of 8 Battleships, 3 of 8 Fleet Carriers, 4 of 16 Battle Cruisers, 6 of 24 Escort Carriers, 67 starfighters, ZERO DEAD.

Covenant Losses: 8 of 8 CCS-Class Battle Cruisers, 800 starfighters, EST. TENS OF THOUSANDS DEAD.

"Ma'am, we're receiving reports all along the Cybran Nation's eastern border, the Covenant are swarming into the Outer Colonies and the patrolling Hunter Squadrons aren't enough to deal with them!" One of her officers, a Seraphim, called.

"Damn it, are they glassing any colonies yet?" Ariel asked.

"No, ma'am, they aren't even detecting our colonies… just bypassing them."

Ariel grinned savagely "Excellent"

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 24, 3871<em>

"Liara, do you know anything about an organization called the Covenant?" John asked his girlfriend (and hopefully future wife) over the secure comm. line.

"No, John, I've found nothing mentioning any Covenant… why do you ask?"

"The Coalition is at war again, with a power in the Galactic Southeast." For some reason, everyone's galaxy maps had the same reference points, perhaps the work of the Protheans or Forerunners? "They call themselves the Covenant, and seem to have decided to pull a Holy War on us."

"That might be troublesome…" Liara sounded worried "How are things so far?"

"We've trounced them in every battle, even though we lose about one and a half times the number of ships every time, we haven't lost a single life yet. Our evac protocols are good enough." John grinned at that before it faded. "Though that's our bigger capital ships against their capital ships, the Normandy can handle at best a single Light Cruiser on its own."

"Well, be careful, John, I don't want you to get hurt again, maybe you should consider moving into a larger ship? Leave the Normandy for expeditions into Council Space?" Liara could imagine John dropping out of Quantum Jump right next to the Citadel with a 100 meter long, 400 meter wide and 300 meter tall Coalition "3860 Battleship" and scaring the Citadel Defence Fleet into a diplomatic incident. (A/N: I forgot the size and build time numbers, sorry)

"Don't worry, Liara, wait… they're attacking Harvest again, sorry, Liara, gotta go!"

"Take care, Love!" She called after his back.

"I will! Love you too!" John called, putting his helmet on and noting Liara was closing the channel just as his mother opened a channel.

"John, I want you to be in charge of groundside operations, there's a Cybran ACU down there with your name on it, even though the Covenant have an army down there, they don't have space superiority and are searching for the archaeological dig site in the northern polar region. We've established a network of small, walled, shielded and stealthed T3 bases and Control Nodes across the planet, so you'll have four thousand units cap." That meant ten Nodes and his ACU, which could deal with 1500 by itself. "We've deployed a thousand structures, so you'll have three thousand units to deploy across the planet. You and your crew can have some fun with the Covenant…"

"Excellent, do we have a perimeter around the dig site they're apparently looking for?" John inquired

"Yep, the dig site itself is not under active stealth, or they'd never find it within the next millennium, though the base is. We should be thoroughly undetectable to any ground unit sensors and ship sensors they might have." Hannah stated simply.

"Great, should I take control now?"

"Yes, control transferred, backup control and overrides are still with me though." Hannah let her son take command of the ground forces, though John Shepard immediately divvied up the responsibilities between himself, Garrus, James, Tali, Jedore, Miranda and Jacob for the various sectors. This would be interesting. The Covenant would never know what hit them, what with Passive Stealth being enough to hold off Covenant ship sensors from above and Covenant sensor stations on the ground for some time.

* * *

><p><em>Northern Polar Region, Harvest, February 25, 3871<em>

"You've got to be kidding me." Kip grumbled as they walked on another pointless patrol, scans from space had pronounced the planet utterly clean of hostile presence, but the Supreme Commander had still insisted they patrol the perimeters of the base while they basically, as Thel Vadamee himself had put it sarcastically to the Retribution Detachment "Wander around hoping we'll trip over the Relic site, it should be around here somewhere, so let's hope we get lucky." They were trudging through the abominably cold snow on the patrol, and all three Sangheili were thoroughly bored. "We're patrolling out in the snow… you'd think that with snow being susceptible to prints, we'd detect any incoming enemies by just looking for footprints…"

"Agreed." N'tho groused "This abominable cold isn't helping my opinion of this planet any."

Unbeknownst to them, John Shepard, listening in on their speech, which was somehow astonishingly in English of all languages (maybe the work of the Forerunners?) was laughing his ass off as he was receiving the data feed through a Selen Combat Scout that was under cloak and active stealth. The mech was standing not a hundred meters away from the three Elites and the Grunts (Grunt had called them that since their back armour hump-thing was like his own, almost, and the name stuck) they were babysitting. The foot prints were hidden by the cloaking field and underlying standard active camo painting the image of the snow still being there. The trail of footprints had been obliterated by reclaiming crushed snow and fabricating loose snow to cover up the trail using the onboard repair systems' very limited engineering capabilities. Impact dampeners could cover up the approach of all but the land experimentals with little difficulty, and Experimentals weren't covered up for one major reason: the shaking of the ground was very, very intimidating. Hence, Coalition units were effectively thoroughly undetectable to most other sensors when they needed to be.

"So, guys, do you think there are any hostiles on this rock?" Usze asked, watching the Unggoy run ahead as fast as their short, stubby legs could carry them. It was similar to their natural environment, they breathed methane after all, and their world was often cold. Sure, they were adaptable and could handle even Sanghelios heat without heatstroke, but they couldn't breathe oxygen, despite it being non-toxic to them (hence they only needed breather masks).

"I highly doubt there are none, after all, there's a Relic here, and they had orbital defences, pretty decent ones too." N'tho stated. Orbital defences had to be pretty good to be able to surprise Covenant Battleships, and that Battle Fleet the enemy had fielded had stood their ground against three BBs and two Assault Carriers, destroying two BBs, damaging an Assault Carrier and the last BB. That meant a pretty tough enemy, good, it was a worthy fight.

None of them noticed the two Loyalist Siege Assault Bots (for TMD), four Harbinger Heavy Armour, five Othuum Heavy Armour and two Banger T2 Mobile Flak, all covered by a Deceiver T2 Mobile Stealth Emitter and a Parafield T2 Mobile Shield Generator/Field Booster (derived from the old Parashield the UEF once fielded) that walked/rolled by at high speed behind them.

The three-by-five rectangular formation had Othuums in the lead row, Loyalists on the outside of the sides, Bangers, next to them flanking the Deceiver in the middle, and the Harbingers bringing up the rear with the Parafield in the middle of that last row. They moved toward the Covenant base in the area, already being comm.-jammed, and started shooting nearly silently. It was an exercise to test Covenant sensors, and the fact that they didn't react until their base started exploding spectacularly said something.

Hence, John Shepard gave the order on his bridge and all across the planet Mavors, Emissaries, the newest versions, with continental artillery capabilities, opened up, as well as Miasma T2 Artillery Installations with their lethal plasma cloud rounds, Gunthers with Proton Artillery and TML-4s with Loa Tactical Missiles. Units fired as well in unison, Loa Tactical Missiles and Sonance Artillery rounds form Vipers and Serenities soaring, undetected, through the sky to smash down and obliterate Covenant formations.

After the first volley, Coalition guns all across Harvest went silent as the land units went back to their bases. On the Covenant side, well, most bases were silent for becoming huge craters in the ground, but those that remained were like a hornet's nest of activity, completely smashed up and confused. John let the three Elites and the Grunt patrol far from their base in his area of jurisdiction live though, they would be useful for spreading fear among the enemy, as would the other survivors. Besides, he had a feeling those three would matter in days to come.

* * *

><p><em>Northern Polar Region, Harvest, February 25, 3871<em>

N'tho's Plasma Sword, drawn almost reflexively, hit the ground, burying the inactive hilt into the snow, as he gaped, mandibles wide open, at the huge explosions boiling up into the sky from the base he'd been in but half an hour ago. Usze was similarly dazed, her mandibles twitching slightly within her Assault Harness, armour only permitted to be worn by females and the highest-ranking Spec Ops males. Kip spoke first of the three "Those were some big explosions, where'd they come from?"

Usze didn't even glance at the significantly smaller male before she screeched "WHAT THE FLYING FUCK JUST HAPPENED?"

"Uh, guys, maybe we should get back to base and take a look first?" N'tho said dryly "And figure out why the Unggoy haven't panicked?"

"We part of Retribution Detachment" The Unggoy Major informed them "We proud, Supreme Commander sensible, Sangheili commanders in Detachment smart, so we no panic."

Kip groaned "Right, I forgot, Supreme Commander Vadamee chose them based on their relative independence…" Sure, it made nice conversation and very good unit cohesion (especially when leaderless, other Unggoy tended to panic but Thel and Rtas handpicked the best of the fleet for the Retribution detachment), but it could grate on the Sangheilis' nerves sometimes, though rarely more than the average Sangheili grated on the nerves of another average Sangheili.

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment Flagship, February 25, 3871<em>

"SILENCE!" Rtas Vadumee roared, and the CIC went quiet instantly, but for the frantic comm. calls from bases all across the planet "Now, would anyone care to explain to me, and the Supreme Commander" He nodded at Thel's hologram "WHAT THE FLYING FUCK JUST HAPPENED?"

"We didn't detect anything, sir, right up until moments before the bases got blown up, survivors are reporting either softly glowing blue or green rounds or almost invisible dark missiles that they only detected thanks to the engine lights." The sensor officer reported quietly, hanging his red-helmeted head in shame.

"I've looked over your sensor logs, Major, you truly picked up nothing, it is not your fault, merely the fault of our gear. We should have positioned our ships lower to get better scan results, but what is done is done, order the ships into the atmosphere and resume groundside operations." Thel finished, then held up a hand in the holo-pedestal "Wait, Rtas, we have a transmission… the High Prophet of Regret and the Arbiter are taking over this operation with their own ships and soldiers, ours are ordered to pull back, excellent, let us see how they fare…"

* * *

><p>After walking over the Covenant once, John decided to hand groundside control back to his mother for now "You're better at it than I am or will be, I don't like the idea of toying with them, wars of attrition, that are one-sided, aren't healthy…"<p>

Hannah had been fine with it, even more so after a report came in from Hat Ya that the Covenant had deployed a base near a major population center, detecting one for once, and were attacking it, the only thing deterring them from trying to glass the place were the three orbital defence Mavors in the city, which could only be used for orbital defence. The Normandy had the nearest Marine crew, so… might as well deploy them to Hat Ya to supplement the civilians that were holding just fine against the Covenant. Sure, the civilians could go on the offensive and probably wipe the Covenant base out without trouble, but it wasn't worth the effort to coordinate the civilians, and taking them outside the city's shield coverage probably wouldn't be worth it, there might even be deaths among the militia…

* * *

><p><em>Hat Ya, February 25, 3871<em>

"Feet First into Hell!" John hollered as the fifteen ground crew members—Grunt, Garrus, Thane, Tali, Samara, Mirala, Mordin and Legion had been briefed on the situation and to keep their non-human status secret—dropped toward the surface, having been dropped in-atmosphere by the fully stealthed and cloaked Normandy. They were also using full active stealth and active camo to hide their entry, and the Covenant ships around didn't notice ANYTHING.

Well, the Covenant on the ground also noticed nothing, right up until a number of Wraith hover-tanks brewed up from Infantry Nanodart Launcher hits and "small-arms" fire began tearing through their troops like wet cardboard.

The fact that your average LBR-3 Sniper Bolt was more akin to a Beam Rifle and could fire upward of three shots per second without needing additional cooling did not bode well for the Covenant as the fifteen ground crew members, in Marine armour, marched into the base, Covenant fire splattering off their over-shields rather ineffectively. They only bothered with cover when they encountered the big guys—Elites, or Sangheili as the Covenant called them—and even then, it didn't take long, since Elite shields could at best take a Sniper Bolt, two Assault Bolts or three GLMG shots before being near buckling, one more shot from even a Laser SMG would do them in.

The battle was a joke, pure and simple (even Legion concluded so, provided Coalition tech was accessible)… right up until Covenant reinforcements jumped into orbit. With the quantum disturbance in the area, the nearest Coalition fleet not already engaged with the enemy was an hour away at high Warp. Still, it was possible for the colonists to gate out, and the Normandy shooting randomly at them from long range managed to distract the Covenant ships long enough for the entire colony to be evacuated by Quantum Gate. After the last civilian left, the Normandy's ground team made a quick boost into the Restorer. The T3 AA Gunship rendezvoused with the Normandy in the troposphere just before the plasma projectors of the Covenant ships in orbit began to glow with building energy. Joker jumped to Warp on a course that would leave the area of the quantum disturbance moments before a Plasma Projector beam passed through the space the Normandy had occupied. After leaving the disturbance behind, Joker went to Quantum Jump back to the Harvest system, where the Third Executioner Swarm was waiting in the asteroid belt, undetectable to the Covenant ships in-system but still pounding them with occasional flights of Revenants that the Seraphs couldn't hope to shoot down in time before they left the small interceptors behind.

* * *

><p><em>Harvest System, March 1, 3871<em>

"Hallelujah they've found the relic!" Hannah cried triumphantly as the Covenant's personnel entered it. "Alright, now that they've found the data they want, let's track them! James, Tali, I'm ordering you and the rest of the Normandy Crew to take a Fleet Carrier and be ready to follow that Battle Cruiser wherever it may go, here, use this FC for the job." She highlighted a Fleet Carrier, loaded with a standard complement of 180 Shocker Strategic Bombers, 120 Revenant Strategic Bombers, 100 Restorer T3 AA Gunships, 40 Whailer Heavy Gunships and 200 Gemini Air Superiority Fighters in addition to the "escape pods".

"Got it ma'am… what about the Normandy?"

"I'll take good care of her." Hannah smirked "I'm quite sure you guys don't want to lose the sight of so many good memories…"

Tali visor-palmed and groaned at the comment while James flushed rather red, Hannah chuckled before John spoke up "Let's get moving… we've got a Fleet Carrier to use now, let's transfer the SCU over…"

"No need, there's a fully upgraded Cybran ACU in the bay, Personal Cloak and Advanced Resource Allocation are the two Torso upgrades" They'd managed to make ACUs have 2 Torso upgrade slots nowadays "HML and T3 Engineering Suite are also included, enjoy."

"Thanks Mom." James nodded gratefully as they boarded the Restorer shuttle. It would have to be parked in the hangar bays of the Fleet Carrier, in front of the racks upon racks of starfighters (aka Air Units) it carried.

"Good luck, boys, now, I need to go interrogate that Elite prisoner Executioner Clutches Three and Four nabbed just yesterday. We destroyed two Battle Cruisers and an Assault Carrier, a scouting party, with only one Battleship and three Escort Carriers" They'd been used to screen the Fleet Carriers, hence the high losses of ECs "lost, at Groombridge-1830." Hannah Shepard closed the channel with that.

"We're here, let's think of a good name for the ship…" John thought for a moment "how about the 'CSC Spirit of Fire'?"

"Whatever…" seemed to be the consensus among the Normandy's crew about the name.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Kiev, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm Flagship, Harvest System, March 1, 3871_

"Start talking, why are you attacking us?" Hannah asked the Elite, who was rapidly being healed by medi-gel enough so that he'd survive despite his injuries.

"We are the holy and glorious inheritors!" The Elite wheezed, and probably would have been shaking his fist in the air but fore his restraints "You have been judged unclean! A scourge that must be burned away! We shall find you, no matter where you hide!"

Hannah frowned, they didn't know the extent of the Coalition, but that was okay… the more important thing was that if they were digging for the relic, and claimed to be inheritors… "You… are you speaking of the Forerunners?"

The Elite's mandibles flared in shock "You know of the Forerunners? Then why do you desecrate their artefacts so? You mount the image of their artefacts on huge plaques and dare to write a similar inscription on the other side?"

Hannah frowned deeper "You mean… the Colonial Survey Plaques? One side is information on the date we landed a survey team and the other… The Apollo 11 Plaque was originally placed on the moon by human astronauts in 1969, some nineteen hundred Galactic Standard Years ago, since then we have placed its image on the back side of every Colonial Survey Plaque in commemoration of my kind's first steps to the stars. Why do you say it is an image of the Forerunners?" The Elite said nothing, until Hannah jammed her Laser Pistol between its mandibles "SPEAK!"

A bunch of muffled noises came out before Hannah took the gun away and used its auto-clean function to clean it off before folding and holstering it again "It is one of the images most often associated with the Forerunners, no one knows where it comes from, no one knows what it means, it refers to a planet called 'Earth'. In the language the Forerunners passed to us, the language every Sangheili must learn in addition to the old dialects, the term means 'Dirt, ground' or something similar. We know the term Moon to be the term the Forerunners used for a natural satellite, another term from them, but the implications are that that planet Earth only has one Moon." The Elite's brow crunched in what seemed to be a thoughtful frown.

Hannah was struck dumb, until the Elite managed to strain far enough to, much to the amusement of the two Marines in the room, poke her armoured hand with a finger "Hmm? Oh, right, Earth… that's the name of my people's homeworld, and the Moon is our traditional name for the only natural satellite Earth has. I don't know how the Forerunners a hundred thousand of our years ago managed to get their hands on an image of that plaque, but if it's true, then no offence, man, but I think we're closer to being the inheritors than you are."

"But… that can't be… the Covenant…" The Elite seemed rather agitated.

"If your Covenant is built on the premise of being the Forerunners' descendants, then of course they'll want you to try to exterminate us, assuming that plaque really links us to the Forerunners somehow." Hannah said matter-of-factly "If you agree to vow to not kill yourself and to attempt to do anything against the Coalition until this puzzle is resolved, and I respect your people's code of honour enough to give you that option to swear the oath, then you will be permitted to walk among us without fear or worry that we will harm you. We need to get to the bottom of this puzzle, if you want to come along for the ride, fine, if not, well… you shall never know if your leaders, your Prophets, have simply used your race for their own nefarious purposes."

Thel Lodamee was taken aback, if this human respected his people's tradition of honour enough to allow him to be among them unrestrained just based on an oath… then she was more honourable than many of his own people were. He'd always been different from the average Sangheili, in terms of his opinions, perhaps that was why the Forerunners arranged for him to survive the crash and be brought here this day… "It surprises me that you respect my people's customs so. I would like some time to consider your offer, honourable male."

The being shrugged before taking off its helmet, revealing long black fur along the top of its head but a hairless, mostly hairless, face, reminding him of what he'd thought Jiralhanae would have looked like had they been more evolved and less savage "Take all the time you need, though, for the record, I am a female of my species, we noticed that you guys don't allow females into your fleet, or the Prophets decreed it, simply because your females are too powerful, and tall, to fit comfortably in your ships." It was like humans from before, when there had been groups fighting for women's rights, except for Sangheili, it had been fighting for males' rights… even though the tall, strong males were still considered most appealing, just like back on Earth tall, leggy women had been considered most appealing in most cultures despite males on average being the taller, the opposite was true of Sangheili. "Anyways, guards!"

Thel Lodamee stiffened instinctively at the barked order. Before the female continued "Make sure no one tries to harm him, if he gets hurt, you two get hurt by ME, got it?" Her face seemed to pulse with some sort of orange pattern…

"What is that pulsing light on your face?" Thel squinted to check if he was hallucinating from the injuries, which were still painful, though the pain was fading somehow…

"Ah, right, men, take off your helmets." The two guards did as they were told "The UEF, this guy being a member of that faction" she pointed to one guard "And the Aeon" she pointed to the other man "Don't really have any distinctive traits that are visible on sight, but I'm a member of the Cybran Nation, one of the four major factions of the Coalition of Species. As a Cybran I have implants, for example, facial circuitry, they allow me to immediately upload data into the Cybran Network or a Battle net, though downloading must be redirected for safety purposes."

"Implants?" That was a horrifying idea to Lodamee. "You willingly give yourself implants?"

"It is through these implants that a Cybran can participate in the decision-making process of the entire Nation, with access to all known data, nothing hidden, nothing lost, the judgement of the majority, after persuasive efforts from both sides, is judged the correct one, though typically multiple choices are carried in parallel for non-critical projects or strategies, and the military isn't nearly as open." She rolled her eyes, if it meant the same as it did for Elites, it was derisive "That's obvious, I'd hope. Anyways, we can talk later after you decide to take the oath and the chance to see what the Prophets are really doing or choose permanent imprisonment, if you choose the latter, we will wait until the conclusion of the war, and then we shall see who was right. Regardless, if you choose the latter, you will be 'released' whereas with the former you can go back a veteran with knowledge of us, probably be able to secure a role as an ambassador or an advisor to one, I'll even write you an endorsement for that once this war is over." She said casually, like it was a foregone conclusion that the Covenant would not succeed in destroying her kind. With the revelations of the plaques, and the ferocity with which the humans had beaten back the Covenant or at least made them pay, Thel, always a bit of a doubter, was starting to think this human was probably honourable enough to follow through on her word. Not many Sangheili could say the same.

Thel nodded slowly "I thank you for the choice… but I still need to consider it…" _And maybe quiz the guards a little._

"Take as long as you need, Jenkins here." She pointed at the guy she'd identified as UEF "Will send for me once you have decided, though I might take a while to get down here, after all, I need to command my Executioner Swarm, you understand?" She smirked in the way her kind did before leaving Thel with the two guards, who settled in chairs on either side of the medical bed, which Thel no longer struggled to break free of, being so deep in thought.

"You know, the cuffs could be a little looser." The one called Jenkins said, after he put his helmet back on, the blue optic lights looking at Thel. "Here, let me adjust it just a little… there" His wrists were now held more comfortable now, able to at least flex, though his hands were still stuck in them, and he could actually move his neck a little instead of being bolted to the table. "So, dude, anything you want to know?"

Thel didn't bother trying to break free, merely nodding "Yes."

* * *

><p>Outside the room, Hannah was formulating a protocol to follow for all future engagements "Let no piece of navigational data fall into the hands of the Covenant, they don't know where we are, that's helping us, and we should keep it that way." She was mumbling to herself just before she uploaded the Shepard Protocol and smirked. It was time to go back to clearing the Covenant from Harvest, now that they could lead the Coalition to whatever they'd been looking for.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Arcadia, March 7, 3871<em>

"Are they here yet?" James asked his twin in annoyance.

"They should be decanting from Slipspace in a few moments." John said as the Ravagers began chattering away, just before the Oblivion Cannons and Sonance fired toward where the Covenant ships were predicted to be and the aircraft, which the _Spirit_ had already mostly launched, began closing in from all directions as the slipspace portals formed.

The two CCS-Class BCs were met with a flurry of fire, all the Strategic Bombers lobbing bombs at one in a single moment. Needless to say, under the extreme amounts of punishment form hundreds of synchronized detonations, that CCS eventually buckled and went dead just before the other one jumped into the atmosphere of Arcadia, over the Capital City. The city was revealed by the shockwave flattening the trees between the camouflaged buildings but leaving the ground shown beneath the buildings clean and undamaged.

The Covenant started dropping troops directly outside the city, since two kilometres plus was too far—the now-visible buildings had told them how tall the towers were—for gravity lifts. Needless to say, the Banshees and Seraphs that were deployed for close air support received a series of nasty surprises from the Flak and SAM towers on the buildings, though far less than on the towers of Procyon, they were still quite plentiful. The civilians had begun evacuation measures (and had armed themselves). Rather obviously, John couldn't use his aircraft for massed strikes on the CCS, because there was no telling what damage the Covenant ship blowing up could do to the planet… he wasn't about to risk all the civilians on a whim…

Hence, he landed his ACU and began constructing an army of Tier 2 units based on the resource extraction/generation of the city to fund things, marching them west through the city to the Covenant attack force, which was moving pitifully slowly, engaging the fragile, weak enemy land units like a plasma torch through butter. They didn't even see the Rhino Medium Armours, supported by Bangers, Vipers, Parafields and a couple Obsidians and Ilshavohs, coming for them. That is, until they started blowing up from red particle beam fire, the dark energy-esque rounds of Aire-au bolters, the glowing white of Quantum Cannons and gigantic (from an infantry perspective) Loa Tactical Missiles. The remaining Seraphs found themselves targeted by Banger after Banger as they performed bombing runs on the formation. The bombs, like the Wraith plasma mortars and the plasma blasters of other vehicles, splashed off the shields of the Parafields ineffectively. Well, there was some red creeping into the green shield bar (blue was for "personal" shields, green for larger bubble shields) under the health bar on John's display when he moved his cursor over them, and some rippling of the large shield bubbles' surfaces, but that was effectively nothing.

His army left a run-down (technically, run-over), battered, and mostly crushed Covenant force behind, the largest survivors were Mgalekgolo. Well, a few of the worms making up each collective colony, that is, unsurprising, considering how the staggered formation of Rhinos, Bangers, Vipers, Parafields and Obsidians had run over the fleeing Covenant troops at hundreds of kilometres per hour while shooting them. The largest survivors had been the orange worms lucky enough to get a space between the tread marks instead o under them. Even then, they needed to have at least a bit of crushed armour above them to protect them and keep them intact.

It was for all practical intents and purposes close to being a joke of a battle, as they rolled closer to a massive dome shield the Covenant had set up, which held something, ruins, with technology the Covenant was putting to use, good use… "They're upgrading one of their Scarab walkers… except it looks more than twice as tall as a regular one…" John murmured to himself. Scarabs were tough, he'd give them that, the forty-meter-tall machines mounted a plasma beam weapon that allowed itself to match up to a Heavy Armour unit, but he would be able to deal with it, unless…

"Oh Fuck." The Super Scarab was complete, and as it moved the shield dome followed it, that said something, as it swept its beam over his units, boring through the few Parafields' shields (he hadn't expected too much firepower from the Covenant) and leaving wreckage behind as they fired back at the massive construct. The shields seemed starship-grade, meaning it was time to bring out the big guns…

A Monkeylord rolled out of John's base toward the much smaller machine as he noted there was excitement over the Covenant battle net over capturing a human and that that human was the only civilian left un-evacuated now. It said something about some sort of Apex installation… It would not matter, the Covenant would be smashed anyways, even if they had to follow them.

The Monkeylord met the machine that was half its size and much slower than it with huge, earth-shaking steps, its Heavy Electron Bolters already firing away before its Heavy Microwave Laser opened up. With the newest upgrades, the Scarab didn't even finish its first recharge cycle for its weapon before its shields popped and it was cut to bits of scrap metal.

The CCS rumbled as it prepared to jump to slipspace, John immediately began minimal liquidation procedures: Hunt down every enemy with aircraft after self-destruct of all land units, unless it is more convenient to use land units for the hunt. "EDI, launch a slipspace probe to follow that CCS!" He barked into his ACU's comm. system.

"Understood, Commander." EDI said silkily as she complied "The recall option is available once you finish up."

"Got it EDI, what's the ETA of that CCS?"

"At the rate it is accelerating and according to intercepted communications about coordinates, it will likely take several days to reach its destination by slipspace. I recommend doing something else in that time, such as first enacting standard liquidation procedures." That included using the Mass Extractors as Mass Injectors instead to ensure the planetary composition didn't change. "After that, I think you should take this ship and visit your girlfriend until it comes time to Quantum Jump to the Covenant's destination…" John blinked at EDI's holographic face. "That was a joke."

"Great, I was thinking you'd started dereliction of duty." John stated flatly. "Though if visiting includes Hallucinations and long-distance Unions, then Liara visits rather regularly… wait, how'd you transfer to the _Spirit of Fire_ anyways?"

"Well, I left my mainframe and downloaded into this one, though I keep my hologram the same and still find ways to enjoy myself at night." EDI winked.

"EDI! PL—" Joker could be heard shouting in the background before he was muted.

"Oops, sorry, Joker, the bridge microphone broke for a moment there." EDI said to Joker, still displayed to John Shepard on his display.

There was a long pause before Joker resumed "You are a scary woman."

"And you love me for it, don't you?" EDI pouted, using her big puppy eyes for Joker until John decided he'd had enough of watching those two go at it, and closed the channel.

* * *

><p>AN: Sorry about forgetting to put up or even write anything for Mass Effect: Galactic Colossus, but I promise I'll get to work on that and posting more of the A-Y Chronicles after the next chapter of this, titled Memories of a Fading Realm, take a guess what it's about!

I HAVE POSTED AN IMAGE ON DEVIANTART OF A PART OF THE BATTLE OF REACH, CHECK IT OUT!

Hey, does anyone else think it would be interesting if, in their spare time, Tali and Liara agree to treat their twin men to something special (in interesting ways, namely via Hallucinations)? I think it sounds interesting to say the least, and besides, both couples are close enough (and love one another enough) it wouldn't affect their romance much to have an occasional orgy, keeping it among the four of them, of course, though with Liara around… that number can multiply very rapidly, and temporarily.

REVIEW (with your opinion of this one, guess for the next chapter and opinion on giving the twins more good times)!


	3. Memories of a Fading Realm

A/N: Sorry about wreckage not being dangerous enough, the problem here is that since Covenant ships stand up to Coalition weapons so well, the end run is usually slicing huge chunks off, blowing away most of the ship's mass, or a swarm of Strategic Bombers. And the Coalition is even more overkill prone since their systems only mark a ship as dead if it's like… less than 1% of full power systems (minimal emergency lights and such may still function despite a ship being dead) or something. Also, they're being cautious, so they'd pump more shots than needed into a Covenant ship anyways.

No, swapping won't really increase pleasure, but it'll be a fun idea to toy with, theoretically.

I'm sorry I rushed the Halo Wars land battles, but this chapter reveals just why that is true. Also, the land battles were rather… unnecessary, with Coalition tech, I mean, curb-stomping is fun, but it kinda gets old after a while. Also, the Elite prisoner? He's going to spend a while at least thinking about the offer, and provide some interesting conversation for Usze and N'tho, and Thel Vadum when it's time. I'm going to be fast-tracking the Covenant War a bit to fit it in before the Reapers arrive.

The problem with having a Hallucination of Liara replace Anders is that with her capabilities, she would either a) instantly dissipate the Hallucination b) make it more solid, if it can pleasure John and clench down hard enough he can't shoot, then it can slug the Arbiter's mandibles off or c) smash the idiot's head in with her mind alone, not even moving the Hallucination much.

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Memories of a Fading Realm<p>

_Arcadia, March 8, 3871_

Ado Mortumee woke up abruptly, more than thirty meters away from the still-imposing wreckage of the Super Scarab the crew had assembled and had planned to use to slow down the enemy if only briefly. He shivered, it hadn't slowed the enemy down one bit, instead, it had been cut apart before it could even get off a second burst of its plasma accelerator… by a walker that towered twice as tall as it had. It had been hewn in half before most of the crew even realized the walker was there, he was one of the luckier ones to jump off and run away far enough…

He needed to report to the Prophets of what had happened here, this was madness, how the hell did a walker that size, with six legs, move so damned fast? And what was really ominous was that there was neither the expected shaking of the ground nor any real audible warning. Hell, there weren't even prints on the ground… how the hell did this Coalition do it? Even if this was an isolated ultra-heavy assault walker dropped from their ship, he still needed to warn the Prophets about it.

He never realized that the Prophets would dismiss him as insane and the laser that cut the Scarab apart as from the ship they'd faced, after all, it had the same power ratings and signature. Even though he was a spy for them, they didn't believe him.

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Unknown World, March 11, 3871<em>

"This place…" Tali looked out through the bridge holographic "windows" "We're here to track down one civilian?"

"Her name's Doctor Ellen Anders, one of our top Forerunner researchers. I don't know how the Covenant knew of her, but they suffered thousands of casualties at the hands of the militia to nab her from her lab… the only reason they nabbed her from her lab was because she didn't have armour, if she did… probably could have out-wrestled an Elite or even a Hunter. They need her to activate some sort of Apex installation."

* * *

><p>-FLASHBACK-<p>

"So we have a transmission here saying the Arbiter figured out thanks to the intel the Relic gave them that they needed a human to activate the Apex, whatever that is." Hannah informed them. "They're planning to head to Arcadia and nab a human from there, in addition to searching for more Forerunner tech and hopefully better coordinates to the Apex."

"Well, we'll cut them off there." John growled.

-END FLASHBACK-

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Unknown World, March 11, 3871<em>

"Forerunner? Apex Installation? What is that… damn, what's happening?" Tali feel to her knees, suddenly feeling sick, before pain tore through her mind and she grabbed her helmet reflexively "AAH, get out of my head!"

"Tali! Tali!" James watched her armour go stiff, holding her up as she fainted.

* * *

><p>-FLASHBACK-<p>

_Location: Unknown, Time: Unknown_

"Crap, they've broken through the perimeter, Admiral, what shall we do?" One of her subordinates yelled.

"Deactivate all the ships except these seven" She highlighted them, using her holo-console. Tali noted the woman she was looking through the eyes of had only a light purple tint to her skin, much lighter than her own lavender, and five-fingered hands, probably human hands "and route the power to Sentinel manufacturing, we need to hold the line long enough to bring enough ships online to fight our way out…"

The scene dissolved, another vision taking its place.

"We made it out without losing a single ship… incredible." She breathed "How goes the war?"

"Admiral…" another of her subordinates said shakily "The war… the war is over."

Her head snapped around and her eyes twitched "What?"

"They… they've fired the Array." Said subordinate said shakily. Tali saw the vision's perspective drop as the woman she was looking through the eyes of dropped to her seat in surprise.

"No…" she whispered to herself "No, this can't be… damn it… DAMN IT! Plot a jump, we're leaving!"

"Plotting jump… slipspace anomaly detected, seems to be some sort of hurricane in slipspace that's slowly subsiding… we're being pulled in!" Her officers were reporting.

"Damn it, hang on everyone! Brace for crash landing!" As soon as the words left her mouth, she found herself looking at a planet that had a bit more land and a bit less water than the Home World did. "This place? We got flung out HERE?" She asked sceptically.

"Admiral, the reactor cores were damaged beyond repairs by the strain of that slipspace hurricane, we don't have any choice but to land here!" Someone reported.

"I know, I know… bring the fleet in for a landing, we shall have to start anew here… let us hope there are other groups of survivors out there…" She looked toward the holograms of the stars one last time before that console powered down to save energy. Perhaps one day the people of this planet would grow technologically advanced enough to discover and re-activate her ships, but that day was a long, long time away. She'd never get to see her lover again… A tear trailed down the Admiral's cheek in the emergency lighting of the bridge as the ship trembled, entering atmosphere, before she wiped the drop away.

-END FLASHBACK-

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Unknown World, March 11, 3871<em>

"Come on elevator…" James was waiting impatiently when Tali stirred in his arms.

"James, put me down, I'm okay now, just had a bit of a memory flashback of some sort." Tali said, wriggling a bit, resulting in the clinking of armour plates between them.

"Tali, I think you should…"

"No, really, I'm fine, it's just some sort of memory… that was long before now, of someone leading seven ships escaping from this planet…"

"Actually, according to Omni scans, it's a Dyson Sphere, with an artificial sun." John called from the CIC.

Tali acted like a classic tech geek in springing up instantly "A Dyson Sphere, around an ARTIFICIAL sun? Even the Council only has a few of those for blue super-giants to manufacture antimatter with the power output! An artificial star! Wow!" She exclaimed excitedly.

John rolled his eyes "Alright, so we're going to have to follow Anders' transponder, she's Aeon, so it'll be a bit difficult to trace compared to a Cybran one, but we'll manage… I hope. I'm deploying the ACU. See you guys later."

Urz had been squinting closely at the holographic display of the area, thinking loudly _Hey, wait, is that…_ before his eyes widened and he grabbed John's arm and began to shake it with a clawed hand. It's Flood biomass! I remember from the Zerg Genetic Memory, the Flood is here!

"What's the Flood?" John asked curiously.

"A hundred thousand years ago, before the days of the First Overmind, it was said that giant ships with tentacles came form the stars and nabbed some of the precursors of the Zerg. We were once a symbiotic species, but they, the Reapers, modified us to be parasitic, we fought back by evolving symbiotic ability, but they countered. They created a strain, a version, of us that was too weak to counter their genetic changes with fresh mutation and selection, they created a strain that would remain nearly constant over time, able to infest life and create more of itself, but unable to change beyond forming an Overmind-esque body eventually to accommodate their own Swarm. We called them… the Flood. They tried to fight us on our homeworld, we fought back, and they lost, for they were designed to be weak enough for the Reapers to assimilate easily." Urz had a faraway look in his red gun barrel eyes as he told the story "Our genetic memory tells of something firing, millions of souls silent in a moment, the fury of the Reapers as they realized their plans had failed… Fury that their firstborn had, with an alliance with…" Urz shook his head and clicked his mandibles in agitation "someone, I think the Forerunners… survived. Their first attempt at creating a bioweapon to fight a unified galaxy had failed, and now they would not allow their second to do the same. We had not purity of form, no really freaking huge resistance to change, but we had purity of essence…"

"Continue" James said.

Urz shook his head in annoyance "Sorry, the data link I established with the former Queen of Blades for info is quite weak, considering she is no longer infested… anyways, the Reapers came and battered their way through our warriors, countless died trying to stop them, swarms of suicide flyers managed to take down several Reapers, but in the end the Overmind was captured and forcibly indoctrinated, before the Reapers left for their next long slumber…"

"Wow, this sounds way too complicated and such to be a coincidence." Tali whispered as if to herself in the silent bridge.

Urz shook his head "It is not, I discovered religion a while back, and for this sort of thing I can only say it is destiny, just as the union of you two through space and time was destiny, just as the bond between you." He pointed at John "And your mate is destiny, so is this, it was meant to be that here, in this generation, all of us would come together to battle the Reapers and beat them back for good."

"I never expected to see a Devouring One so fucking spiritual." Jack commented from where she was watching over some of the Fleet Carrier's weapon systems.

"Neither did we." Legion droned back from the opposite end of the bridge from Jack.

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Inside Surface, March 11, 3871<em>

"This is their top researcher into the Forerunners' legacy? So frail you'd hardly think them a threat…" The Prophet of Regret said, his hover-chair going around Anders' containment field.

"I demand to know why I am being held!" Anders shouted.

The Arbiter snorted "Heh, demand…"

A Zealot walked up "Arbiter, a Coalition warship has been sighted approaching the surface—" He was swatted aside with a growl from the Arbiter.

"Then we shall destroy it!" He clenched his fist "We cannot let it fall into the hands of the wretched Parasite…"

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Outside Surface, March 11, 3871<em>

"This form of growth, this much more primitive and weaker version of Creep, can be easily burnt from existence and will die without a structure to support it, and much faster than Creep would." Urz stated as the ACU vaporized a Flood Colony with its HML on landing, he had decided to use his keyboard for texting. "That's one way to clear a huge patch…"

John hummed as he set up his first Land Factory "So, what other intel can you get?" Spook-class Spy Planes anchored to the external transport points of the Fleet Carrier had already bee released to scout, so Urz should be getting lots of data at his console, which his three-fingered one-thumbed (his middle finger was the huge forearm scythe-thing) two-part hands could use.

"These Flood Bomber Forms are derived from Overlords, but are significantly weaker, slower and only drop Infection Forms, which can burrow into and take over a sentient being's body in minutes, more hostile and dangerous to the host than the original Zerg were, we used to be symbiotic after all…" Urz highlighted the few Bomber forms the Spooks were picking up some distance away. "Most importantly, unlike Overlords and other Zerg flyers, they cannot focus their psionic energies to create wormholes, which the Swarm uses for FTL. Wait, I'm picking up… no way… Spine Crawlers? No, these are far more primitive, and can't move, ah, right, Flood Roots, a single shot from any of your vehicles will put it down."

"So, uh, anything else that's interesting?"

"Growth pods and Flood stalks here, these things. They are derived from Zerg eggs and when destroyed will release a number of Infection Forms that they are incubating as well as a cloud of acid spores. Thankfully, the spores only remain damaging for a short time, not like that Tiberium stuff you humans thought up way back when." Urz shuddered at the thought "Oh, I've detected some primitive versions of Spore colonies, here, here and here, they should pose no threat to us."

John snorted "Anything that can actually go on the offensive instead of waiting for a unit to roll over and utterly squash them to dust? Crap, no mass deposits here, oh well, I'll just go with drawing on the Carrier's Paragon then." It wasn't quite as powerful as a real Paragon structure, but it would be enough. He began building more factories and Point Defences.

"I'm picking a few other units, like… Flood Swarms, how useless, they're basically very much nerfed versions of Mutalisks, but come in huge swarms just like those do. They'll try attacking scout units, but anything with flak will mop the floor with them. Reason the Reapers made them so damned weak is so they'd never be a real threat, but it seems they managed to assimilate enough Forerunner tech back in the day to defeat the Forerunners. The kicker is that Reapers can't be infected by Zerg or Flood, they wanted to harvest us after our bio-weapon job was done. Hey, I'm picking up Flood Thrashers, they'll flail at your units with tentacles, no real threat, they're weaker than a freaking Hydralisk's scythes attacking. I don't know how callous the Forerunners must have been to lose enough tech to them to get overrun, but they must have been pretty damned stupid… or the Reapers must have helped the Flood." Thrashers were a low tech tier unit, equivalent to a Hydralisk in tier… but if so, where was the Zergling counterpart?

John had begun assembling a Tier 1 army already, to use to run around and clear the area's flood, when Urz spoke again "Careful, I'm picking up Flood Colonies, the equivalent of Hatcheries but much weaker, and Flood Dens, their Lair counterparts, in the area, in addition to launchers for Flood Dispersion Pods, just like the Swarm's Insertion Pods but more fragile and less heavily armoured. Oh crap, I'm picking up more forms, Stalkers!" Those were the Zergling counterparts, except they had different mutations if the Swarms last memory of fighting the Flood a few thousand years ago still held true. They could mutate to a Ranged form that was like a Hydralisk in launching spines, or… "Tank forms! They're tougher but slower than Thrashers, think Devouring One to the Thrashers' Zergling, almost, except tougher than Zerglings… I'm also picking up some Infection Forms, though we likely won't see any Combat or Carrier forms until some of the Covenant get infected."

John snorted "Alright, let's do this thing…" And so his first Tier 1 armies were indeed "Doing this thing", going around and frying Colony after colony, Den after Den with high explosive and incendiary weaponry, cleansing Flood presence from the area thoroughly, passes from Scorcher T1 Attack Bombers ensuring it by dumping firebombs down like rain on the ground, bathing it in flames.

Once they cleaned up the Flood in the landing area, and put down a Control Node to ensure control would remain functional, despite an ACU's resource coordination systems able to work at up to 300,000 kilometres in any direction without decline in efficiency, it was better safe than sorry. They moved toward the Covenant presence on the surface, a group of Jiralhanae, what the Coalition had termed Brutes, guarding a beacon, needless to say, it was an overrun, or rather, run-over, op.

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Forerunner Dyson Sphere, March 11, 3871<em>

Urz froze as a psionic presence, tainted with the evil that was Reaper control, an evil he had thought he had been freed of after the death of the First Overmind and the completion of its plan, brushed against him. _Why do you come, ZERG?_ It spat. _Why do you not leave us alone and grow separate from us? The sins of the fathers are passed to the son…_

_Because the Swarm does not utterly destroy, we absorb some good qualities and then leave the species more or less alone!_ Urz roared back before slamming down on the presence, which wasn't very strong with his armour on, maybe an Overmind cocoon? _You will fall, Reaper puppet, you will fall just like so many of your kind have fallen before us, FLOOD!_

_Puppet? I only serve the lords both our kinds were modified to serve, as were the Protoss. Your two species rebelled, and look where it got you, squabbling over your little Sector, while we once grew to be mighty enough to conquer the Galaxy!_ The proto-Gravemind, for that was the term the Zerg called the Flood counterparts of the Zerg Overmind, laughed coldly.

_Yet you failed, as we would have done had the First Overmind not been strong enough to at least fight against the indoctrination._ Urz growled savagely before tearing away from the exchange and typing in a message to John's ACU. It read: "John, there is a proto-Gravemind, the equivalent of an Overmind Cocoon, somewhere in this area, you must destroy it to lift the jamming on Anders' transponder and help us locate her in time before the Covenant does whatever it's going to do."

Needless to say, a withering rain of nearly two hundred Quark Bombs from Shocker Strategic Bombers and a hundred-plus Proton Bombs from Revenants smashed down on the proto-Gravemind moments later, actually tunnelling deep enough into the Dyson Sphere to tunnel through the hull. "Oops…"

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Outside Surface, March 11, 3871<em>

"Well, it seems that shallow sea probably hides a door of some sort… under which Anders' signal is… hey, I'm right!" John exclaimed as the Spirit's scanners located Anders' signal. The flood in the area seemed to have gone berserk, but crushing waves of carpet bombing by Revenants and Scorchers put an end to THAT quickly enough. John found that if he sent out all hundred and twenty Revenants he could cleanse the entire planet of Flood in short order, since the bombs were thirty-plus kilotons yield each, so if he set them to diffuse detonation, they'd do very little to structural fields, but against Flood it would be more than enough. Shockers that followed would clear out anything that put up any resistance, and Scorchers hot on their heels would deal with the rest. Sure, the aircraft would need to stop every few hundred kilometres to regenerate fuel, but still, it would work. He couldn't afford using strategic missiles, lest he blow a crack in the Dyson Sphere by accident, so it was the best choice he had. "Well, we've found the door in, now… whoa."

"There's a tractor beam trying to pull us in but we're holding position with our Quantum Propulsion drive, barely, if you want us to deploy any more Tier 3 air support, disable these Forerunner Pylons." James reported.

Urz's typed message read "I think those look like old, modified Protoss Pylons to me."

John shrugged as he channelled his Strategic Bombers toward the pylons to blow them to smoking craters "Same idea, we kill them, the _Spirit_ has better control properties. Now to start the project of cleansing the Flood on this Dyson Sphere…"

"John, I'm detecting Flood Swarms, lots of them!" James called "Sending some Coronas to help!" John only had a Tier 2 base since they weren't planning to stay on the surface, hence he needed Coronas for Tier 3 Air-to-air flak-type capabilities.

"Those things die easier than Mutalisks." Urz texted John dryly "Perhaps the Forerunners underestimated them… until they managed to infest enough Forerunner warships."

John shrugged in response "Probably, we're not making that mistake. I'm taking the ACU back to the _Spirit_. Miranda, monitor the situation up here by using that Control Node!"

"Understood, John." Miranda responded before taking control of the base and the air fleets cleaning the Dyson Sphere.

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Access Tunnels, March 11, 3871<em>

"Take us in, Joker, slow and steady." The ship was holding fine against the tractor beam, which made John, still in his ACU in the ACU Room, wonder how advanced the Forerunners really were technologically, and whether the Coalition could also build worlds like this. He realized that the Coalition didn't need to, and that the technology to construct worlds only made war more dangerous and insidious for ALL parties, hence it wasn't looked into much beyond "how to fix a planet".

_That would most likely come in horrifically useful with how the Council still didn't believe my report on the Reapers._ John thought darkly.

"Flood Swarms and forms are trying to launch onto the hull!" EDI warned "pulsing structural fields to clear them off the surface!"

"Use Electron Flak EDI! The splash damage should exterminate them, keep the structural fields pulsing!" John called, Fleet Carriers weren't close-range ship-to-ship combatants but were AA powerhouses. The Spirit of Fire was demonstrating that perfectly as it tore through clouds of Flood.

After they passed through the first of what looked to be decontamination rings—damned inefficient ones—they started meeting small machines attacking the Flood, the Spirit's smart Electron Flak shells redirected splash away from them, resulting in the Sentinels as Urz and Tali called them ignoring the Spirit… until they passed through the next ring, upon which the machines seemed to start viewing them as a vector that could be carrying Flood. Needless to say, as soon as they opened fire, John ordered "Anyone who shoots at us is hostile, SWAT THEM!" The high-powered Electron Flak made short work of the puny drones as the huge Fleet Carrier barrelled past.

As soon as they exited, EDI shouted a report "Covenant CCS Battlecruiser ahead, direct collision course!"

"Damn, this is going to be a hard one… fire all weapons and RAM THEM!" John bellowed. "If they try to dodge, let them! Where's our Shock— right, on the surface…" He growled as the two looming starships closed distance, the Covenant ship trying to move out of the way but the Spirit adjusting course for a head-on collision. "Lock down weapons, don't let them take any damage!" Ramming was a lot more damaging to structural fields if snags were involved.

"Done, Shepard." EDI stated smoothly as the hologram of the Spirit retracted all weapons and locked down all armour and ports, adjusting course to ram the swerving CCS amidships.

The Covenant seemed to realize too late that their ship would not be able to dodge and swung so it would be a more head-on, oblique collision instead of a spine-breaker. Still, the crash left the Battlecruiser minus one of its bulbous portside pods" and without a clean seventh of its engines and several reactors sheared away. The front end of the Sprit was seriously scorched, structural fields down to half but shields still holding steady, not having been affected by the ramming. Both warships began exchanging broadsides after that, the CCS carrying a massive advantage thanks to the Spirit's weapons mostly concentrated in the bow, the main body effectively being a pair of huge, heavily-armoured hangar bays with the Gate Room and reactors in the center line.

The Covenant had no counted on the Sonance unlocking from its armoured position and swinging about to give their butt a good kick though, throwing the CCS for a bit of a spin, as its shields on the whole side had been sheared offline by the crash. That allowed the twenty or so Shockers the _Spirit_ had manufactured in the time it took to get into the Dyson Sphere to come around from the other side (the near side hangar was still closed to reduce damage taken) of the _Spirit_ and start bombing runs. The strategic bombers forced the Covenant ship to fire emergency thrusters to get away before starting a pin-point slipspace jump away from the _Spirit_ to avoid destruction. "EDI, how are repairs?"

"Going well, I am diverting all engineering capacity from construction as soon as this batch of Revenants finishes, the estimated time for the structural fields and armour damage to fully repair is eight hours." EDI frowned "I'm picking up Anders' signal here, in this structure near this… massive complex, those ships, they look, familiar, too familiar."

"Agreed." Tali stated from where she was standing with her arms crossed, playing with the additions to her armour that disguised her as human, namely, the two new fingers and toes on each limb that were made to respond to commands from her brain, her coordination was still a bit off but somehow she was learning fast, as if it was second nature…

"Let's land the ACU and start putting up a base, we'll have a lot of fighting to do." John cracked his knuckles "If there are any Flood in here, then we'll have some burning to do, Urz, you sensing anything?"

_Nope, not sensing anything much on the inner surface, the occasional infection form, but those are hunted constantly by the Sentinels, there's a LOT of Sentinels…_ Urz added the last part after looking at the Radar readouts

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." John, who'd never left his ACU, gated down at that, flattening a large area of forest with the concussive force but the standard ACU Passive Stealth Emitters hiding it from sensors.

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Apex Installation, March 11, 3871<em>

The Arbiter marched toward Anders' holding field with his energy sword tip dragging a bit along the ground. "Restraints off!" He growled. Anders collapsed to the ground before getting back up just in time to be grabbed about the neck by the Arbiter. "Your judgement has waited long enough." He dragged her over to the holo-control sphere, though she managed to stay standing while dragged, before he threw her down in front of it.

"Heh, get it over with, freak." She snarled before he grabbed her hand and pushed it onto five of the letters that had suddenly glowed on the sphere, her thumb over an S and the fingers forming T-A-R-T. The sphere began to glow, and the Arbiter moved back, letting Anders' hand go, as he watched the Apex rumble with power.

The Honour Guards along the route were similarly distracted, watching the control sphere as it shot a brilliant beam of energy upward. The titanic warships towering around the Apex began to activate, humming with power as their side prongs slid along the ring that dominated the apparent stern of each hull slowly outward, staying parallel to the main hull. The Arbiter walked away from Anders to behold the spectacle "The ancients have granted us the power to doom your race!" The Covenant Fleet had not been seemingly sufficient to battle the humans, but these warships surely would be. "Let the deconstruction of our gifts begin! The Majesty of our new fleet will be unparalleled!"

Anders was already standing again (A/N: 38th century humans are tough things) and noted how everyone present was distracted, she ran over to the pad where she'd been imprisoned ,after snagging a Needler a guard had dropped in shock, hoping it was a teleporter. Quantum teleporter tech had been phased out many, many years ago in the Coalition for its inability to penetrate structural fields. Gating could, but that put too much stress against the external surface of an object for anything without fields and armour to withstand. "Nothing ventured… SURFACE!" She called.

That was just before the ships stopped activating "For Second-Stage Activation, Authorized User is required."

"WHAT?" The Arbiter, and everyone else present, gaped, before looking around "CURSE IT ALL!"

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Inside Surface, March 11, 3871<em>

"Hmm, that worked out pretty well…" She noticed the three weird critters approaching "or maybe not." She looked at her Needler and fired. She'd seen it on seeking and non-seeking when the Covenant attacked her lab and only forced the armoured militia back through sheer numbers of guns, not even managing to kill a single militiaperson, this was definitely non-seeking, as it shot right through the critters, killing each with one shot. The Needler's ammo counter went from twenty to seventeen counters in the 4x5 dot formation that indicated the ammo.

"Good to see you can handle yourself, Doctor Anders, now, you want a lift?" A Restorer touched down near her and deactivated its engines, allowing her to climb up a ladder that extended from the armour (self-repair protocols allowed fabrication and liquidation of small protrusions and materials). "Forces of Commander John Shepard, commanding the _Spirit of Fire_, here, now, let's get you back to the ship and attack the Apex installation, we'll be seeing a LOT of dead Covenant on the way…" The man's transmission screen disappeared as she entered the inside of the Restorer from the airlock.

"Thanks for the save, Commander… you're the Hero of the Citadel guy aren't you?"

"Yep, it's me and my crew here, just hang on and we'll all be back home in no time." The man smirked before the holo-screen vanished again and she sat on one of the couches in the cargo bay.

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's ACU, Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Inside Surface, March 11, 3871<em>

"So, EDI, what were the Covenant trying to do?"

"According to the Mole-class Land Scout we have in the area" That was lower-profile, and lighter, than the Selen and cloaked, but not stealthed. "They want to activate this fleet of ships in hopes of using them to defeat the human race."

"They should be the most powerful warships currently known, at least, if their resemblance to the seven 'mystery dreadnoughts' of the Migrant Fleet holds true." Tali pitched in "We should save them for use against the Reapers."

James shook his head in the transmission box "No, the Covenant have arrived with more ships and forces, only the Spirit's Active Camouflage and the Deceivers I've planted all over the surface are keeping us from being detected. They've boarded those ships already, we have to destroy them, there's enough of them to potentially overrun the Coalition, if the Galaxy is to survive the Reapers, that can't be allowed to happen."

"James is right." John concluded "We must destroy them, but how?"

"Blowing up the sun should do it." Anders commented from where she was listening in "A single strategic missile, even a Stonager, should suffice to destabilize the star and set it off in a supernova."

"I'm going with an Apocalypse, more dramatic when I write the report." John chuckled while everyone else facepalmed. "Anyways, I want to examine the Apex site first, check if there's any way we can rid the fleet down in that anchorage of the Covenant and use it to end this war quickly in our favour, so that we can be ready for the Reapers."

"Well, we can try, but that means we'll have to take the Apex site without damaging it too much." James commented "So we can clear the outside of Covenant but we'll have to fight our way into the site using infantry."

John nodded as he sent his Scorcher T1 Attack Bombers and Janus T2 Fighter-Bombers on their way, escorted by Geminis and Coronas from the Spirit, and a few Restorers "Alright, let's turn the area around it into a sea of fire…"

By the time the fires around the Apex Installation died down, the only surviving Covenant in the area were either inside the Apex or in the veritable forest of ships around it. It was time for the infantry attack, so John recalled his ACU into the Spirit's ACU Room. "Jacob, take control of the ground forces through the ACU, I'm going down there to deal with the situation personally…" _…and to consult with Liara using my mind if she has any knowledge as to these ships or this installation._

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Dyson Sphere, Apex Installation, March 11, 3871<em>

The five ground team members, Mirala, Samara, Jedore, Tali and John hot-dropped via QP Pack once the LZ had been cleared by pin-point accuracy shooting of Light Assault Bots from Ghetto Gunships, which still left the surface of the installation riddled with craters. That is, until John moved the Ghetto Gunships so they'd sweep the deck without hitting it. They gunned down the local area of Covenant with minimal effort due to, as Jedore put it, "Their shields seem to be the 'take some hits and recharge' type as opposed to our 'mad defence, relatively long recharge'. That is, for those that actually WITH shields at all." She said as she shot more armour-piercing high explosive rounds into dead Elites to make sure.

_Liara, you can summon a Hallucination here now, make sure it's a dramatic entry though._ John thought to his somewhat impatient girlfriend over the neural link he'd set up before the fight.

_Alright, but warn the others, I don't want to get shot._ She thought back.

"Liara's going to summon a Hallucination of herself here so she can take a good look at this thing herself, see if there's anything she could do about it. Pretend you don't notice the Arbiter standing right over there, if Liara finds something, I want him to report back to his superiors and scare them shitless." John called. The others replied in the affirmative as they took up positions at the path leading to the Apex controls, waiting for the Elites, who were under some sort of passive camo field, a pretty crappy one, as it distorted the air a bit, for the other end to start charging before they'd lay down a withering hail of fire.

Liara, drawing on her memory of what her human past life had looked like, emerged onto the platform in a brilliant flash of light and a shockwave that made the ignored (and still believing himself undetected) Arbiter's camouflage field ripple a bit. She didn't summon armour for the Hallucination, she didn't need to, not for this. "I think this place feels a bit familiar…" she looked down at the sphere, the controls to the installation, and frowned "Tali, why are our names showing on this thing?"

Tali wandered over (as did the ignored Arbiter) "What?" The Quarian gaped at the fact that the controls had rearranged the letters so that two words would be formed if they put their hands on it, TALI ZORAH and LIARA T'SONI, adding up to a total of twenty letters for the twenty fingers their armours had currently, it even included the apostrophe. "Well, let's try it."

They pressed their fingers on the relevant buttons and the Apex began to tremble as the ships began locking into a configuration Tali had only seen before in the Migrant Fleet's seven dreadnoughts "Authorized Users Detected, Access Granted, welcome back, Admiral Zorah," Tali took several stumbling steps back in shock at that, bumping up against Jedore's back "Mistress T'Soni…"

"What the—" Liara was cut off from her shock as she smirked, the sudden glow of the dual prongs of a classic Covenant Energy Sword pushing out the chest of the Hallucination just before she crushed down on the blade with her mind, it didn't hurt as she had zero sensitivity whatsoever this time, expecting that sort of back-stabbing.

The next thing that happened, which she'd also expected, was the nearly half a ton of armoured, enraged boyfriend ramming the Arbiter, pinning the bigger alien down and smashing his mandible guards with his fists before extending the spikes. That was just before the Elite managed to throw him off and the weapons of the three team members guarding the walkway began to lay down a hail of death. John activated stims as Liara's Hallucination used her mind to simply pull out the Energy Sword before smoothing over the image's injury, holding the Plasma Sword casually in one hand as she watched John duck a completely ineffectual slice from the other Energy Sword the Elite had, while yelling "Are you alright Liara?"

_Yes, look out!_ Liara's originally calm mental voice rose to a wail as John Shepard watched the alien's sword come back and move toward his chest in a lunge while his own Laser SMG was coming up to shoot.

The Energy Sword hilt slammed up against John's armour plate and the Arbiter grinned triumphantly before John's LSMG opened fire at the same time as a spiked, black-armoured fist colliding with the side of his head. John grabbed the plasma sword hilt and deactivated it, leaving only two scorch marks on his armour "This is why we stopped using plasma cutters as an attachment to the front of tanks! Structural Fields work as radiators! They're-not-effective!" He punctuated his words with shots to the Arbiter's legs before feeling a looming presence behind him.

The Hallucination Liara's eyes were glowing now, holding a gigantic sphere of raw psychic energy above her head more or less casually "John, let me deal with this bastard. Guys, stop shooting, I'll deal with them all" She snarled, while the Arbiter was frozen in a paralyzing Stasis field, only showing fear in his eyes. Liara tossed the gigantic ball over her shoulder causally and it rolled down the walkway, annihilating every Covenant soldier it came into contact with. They were all running away from the huge-ass, unstoppable ball of destructive energy in sheer panic, but they weren't fast enough.

"Liara, he tried to hurt you, I want to be the one to kill him." Shepard protested, but made no move to blow the Arbiter's head off with his Laser SMG.

Liara smiled lazily, shaking her head, momentarily distracted by the feeling of having hair to shake around "John, this is just an image, and I had the sensitivity on zero, it didn't even sting, now, I want to teach him that he who tries to kill my boyfriend with the sword will be killed with the sword."

John nodded submissively "Alright, you do the honours."

Liara's image nodded back, smiling, before releasing the Arbiter from stasis and landing a solid punch on him, grabbing him up by the neck, parrying his slashes at her image with his Plasma Sword before finally deciding she'd had enough and stabbing the Elite through the chest and slicing her way up, effectively hewing him in half. "Alright, now, it's time to blast this place to hell." She deactivated her sword and handed it to John, who pocketed the Trophy.

John nodded "Jacob, we're on our way back, is the missile ready?"

"Will be by the time you get back sir." Jacob stated.

John hummed "Excellent, Miranda, self-destruct everything on the surface except our aircraft."

Miranda nodded "Acknowledged, John."

They docked with the Spirit and John and co. returned to the bridge "EDI, do we have a clear path out?"

"No, the exit portal has been sealed by the Covenant's efforts, however the Spirit should be able to hew its way through with the Heavy Microwave Laser or Strategic Bombers."

"Do it, EDI." John said, the red (due to atmospheric particles being excited by the beam's power) laser line that had already begun cutting a rectangular hole enacted his order, or began the job, even before he finished saying it.

The other half of the portal was blown open by runs from his Strategic Bombers almost at the same time as the Spirit cutting through the first half. They moved out through the hole they'd hewn in the door as the Shockers docked again. The outer door was not closed, so it was a simple enough task to escape… "Jacob, hit it!"

"Aye sir!" The black man called from his station.

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED." EDI played the usual monotone warning as the missile began its flight toward the star, a sure to be brief flight… The missile went off as it effectively hit the surface of the star.

The artificial star began to destabilize as the Spirit collected its remaining aircraft, packing the racks, the external carrying points and the hangar bays to capacity to fit the original complement plus the new planes they'd fabricated. "John, I'm picking up a signal…" James called "Covenant attack expected at Jericho VII in three days, mom will be there and she'll want her ship back."

"Take us there then, Joker." John ordered, feeling Liara's image rest its chin on his shoulder as his armour applied the pressure.

"Aye, John, after we watch this baby go boom." Joker replied.

John shrugged "Sure, why not, let's jump to a safe distance first, this may be a small star going nova, but it'll still be one big badda boom."

After watching the epic blast destroy hundreds of thousands of Covenant and the Dyson Sphere, they jumped into orbit over Jericho VII, alone. Apparently, the 3rd Executioner Swarm wouldn't be here until two days later, as they were engaged in combat with another Covenant fleet near Harvest that they'd interdicted. Still, the _Spirit of Fire_ was ordered to hold position over Jericho.

The crew's general response was "Whatever, will do."

Liara's response on the other hand was, once they were in the elevator and John had removed his armour "It'll be a while before you have to do anything now… so, since I put so much more energy into this one than usual, I think it'll last a good…" She thought for a moment "Six more hours. Let's go and break in your new quarters, and give me a good feel for what having hair feels like with you. Carry me into your bedroom and do whatever you want, I need to go check up on my body, make sure it's still asleep in its bed where it's supposed to be…" She winked at John as she jumped into his arms "I'll change the sheets on my bed when the night cycle's over and I need to go back, I expect this to be very relaxing, John." Her avatar's eyes went blank, showing she'd left to check on her real body for now.

Even though he was blushing like a tomato when he carried her bridal-style over the threshold of his quarters, John Shepard did not disappoint one bit that night. Needless to say, Liara recalled the Hallucination in the morning before it died out for an early breakfast.

* * *

><p>COALITION CODEX ENTRY: SEXUAL DIMORPHISM<p>

Considering that males are typically larger and stronger than females in most species, it comes with a surprise to many that this is not true for Sangheili of the Covenant nor humans nor Quarians. The astounding similarity of the Quarian, Asari and Human genomes leads to speculation that ancient races may have tampered with all three species, with humans as the base template (given the greater genetic variation present in humans). Assuming this is true, the modifications to the human genome, which occurred in the early twenty-second century, are astonishingly present in all three species (no one knows why). These modifications had the result of making females, if not taller, stronger than males, thanks to certain critical genes on the X-chromosome that were modified. Despite females having Barr bodies in their cell nuclei, these modified genes are still expressed on a Barr body, and thus produce the result that women for the three human-like species are stronger than men (Asari are stronger than human or Quarian men), since they have two X-chromosomes, not one, expressing the particular gene clusters.

As for the Sangheili, the only other species known to express this trend so far, it is speculated that larger, heavier, tougher females may be better able to protect their nests and hatchlings from intruders, while smaller males would be able to do tasks requiring more agility, such as foraging from trees. It is a trait expressed at times in fish, where smaller males can produce large amounts of sperm anyways, not proportionally much less than large males, while larger females can produce many times as many eggs. The restrictions on Sangheili females in the Covenant military may have something to do with the fact that ships designed for "Prophets", the San-Shyuum, are about as comfortable for Sangheili Females as they are for Mgalekgolo. Assuming the restriction was not voluntary, perhaps it is the fact that males are already tough enough, even the smaller ones (though large males are still considered more attractive, the selection is not as strong as in some other species), so having the even more powerful females onboard… may not be good for the health of the other species, especially Prophets if they irk said females. Male Sangheili are tough on the other species, but where a male's swat may result in an Unggoy rubbing its head in pain while wandering around dazed, a female's would probably break its neck. That is not desired, and males are tough enough to make some Prophets nervous as is, hence female Sangheili do not typically serve in the military.

The fact that according to captured archives there was a pro-male movement on Sanghelios, homeworld of the "Elites" or Sangheili, where the males, after the industrialization left them doing house-husband duty, protested for their rights, supports this theory that Sangheili evolution followed a different path from most other sentient species.

END OF CODEX ENTRY

* * *

><p>AN: Yeah, I know, I did Halo Wars a bit too fast, but I hope the reveals were interesting.

REVIEW! I got what, FOUR? For last chapter? With this one having so many reveals, I'm expecting LONG/MANY REVIEWS!


	4. The Walls of Jericho

A/N: A Space AND Land battle for once… though the land one won't be much of a battle.

Barr bodies are indeed female-only, it is a condensed X-chromosome, only a few genes are expressed, but those few make a big difference, the absence of a second X and thus a Barr Body results in Turner Syndrome. True, in canon Sangheili are supposedly purely carnivorous, however even tigers and such can eat fruit, and when eating prey stomachs carnivores will end up eating plant material, oh, and don't forget this is not canon, it's FFN, it's one of the minor changes I'm throwing in, besides, they aren't obligate carnivores.

As for why quantum teleporters aren't used in Citadel Space, I think the Coalition assumes too much technology for the Citadel Races… And as to how the Chief will fit into the story next to Shepard, well, he won't, we've all seen crossovers with Chief and Shepard finding themselves to be effectively the same entity, I'm going with that. It was also why I considered Shepard more likely to be UEF until I thought of how I liked Cybrans better, the fact that they had the best Black Sun ending (no blowing up planets, no brainwashing), the best cause and most importantly, FIREWALLS so I could make Liara have… problems.

Shocked no one (especially **Mastermind4892** or **one-village-idiot**) decided to comment on my decisions linking the Zerg and Flood last chapter, but so be it. Nod to **left hand turn signal**, welcome to reading this fic string (not particularly a series, more like the threads of a string), hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: The Walls of Jericho<p>

_Elevator, CSC Spirit of Fire, Space near Jericho VII, March 11, 3871_

"James, I already told everyone, I have no idea why the system recognized ME as 'Admiral Zorah'!" Tali exclaimed while they were in the elevator, before frowning guiltily "Sorry for snapping, but everyone's been pestering me about why we couldn't save the dreadnoughts."

James held his hands up in a placating motion "I know, John told me while he was waiting for Liara to come back, the logic was that the Covenant had already crewed them so if they were released they'd be under Covenant control, not our control. He said there were too many Covenant ships in the Dyson Sphere already for the Spirit to handle, so we were effectively out of time."

Tali nodded, looking down at her armoured glove and hitting the controls to made the middle two, completely artificial, fingers disappear again "Good to see you understand, James." She balled her normal three-fingered fist, and frowned, it felt somehow unnatural, like she was meant to have five fingers… she shook the feeling off. "Let's go clean up and head to dinner."

James nodded with a wicked grin "Feline style?"

Tali laughed and pushed him away "Not now, James, there's work to do, later, okay?"

James pouted before submitting "Alright, I'll wait…" His eyes gleamed as he looked at her darkly "but expect to get pinned down tonight, miss Zorah."

Tali shivered and shifted uncomfortably, blushing at the promise. She didn't respond until they left the elevator. Surprisingly, they both came down to lunch "on time" if one put in two shower times for James' quarters' bathroom. For obvious reasons, only one shower was taken.

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Spirit of Fire, Space near Jericho VII, March 11, 3871<em>

"What brought that sudden lust on, Liara?" As usual, his hands were rubbing at her crest gently, feeling their warm, soft texture, expertly rendered by the mind of his brilliant, beautiful girlfriend to be just like real except for the psychic closeness, which was a shadow of what it was really like to be with her. Asari crests only became that soft when they were aroused or felt exceedingly safe with someone.

"Probably the same thing that most likely has Tali excited, the knowledge that we are more than we seem, that we are powerful beyond our own comprehension…" Liara's avatar murmured sleepily into his chest. "It's too bad we couldn't have saved the fleet of dreadnoughts, but you did the right thing, John, the Covenant that already boarded the ships… I could sense their single-mindedness, over-discipline, they would have tried and probably succeeded in overrunning the Coalition at least to a significant degree… the Galaxy can't afford that."

"You're right, Liara, that's why I blew up the Dyson Sphere… yet I wonder, why did it identify Tali as an Admiral and you as the Mistress?"

"You guys can talk and I can sit in through you tomorrow morning, for tonight, let's just take a good rest together… don't worry, I won't waste anything, I'll recall myself early in the morning so I can get my morning snack… you're absolutely delicious, you know that?" The last part came out as a whisper as she fell asleep in his arms, her head buried in his shoulder, her last thought being of warmth and happiness despite the war with the Covenant and the looming Reaper threat.

"So are you, Liara, so are you…" John kissed her crest, and she snuggled closer instinctively, humming in contentment.

* * *

><p><em>Conference Room, CSC Spirit of Fire, Space near Jericho VII, March 12, 3871<em>

After they sent Doctor Anders off (with the autographs she wanted, hell, she even stared Grunt down for his), John paced in the conference room until everyone was there "Alright, so we're going to collectively figure out what happened, Tali, what was that vision you experienced on the Spirit's bridge over the Dyson Sphere?"

"It was something about ordering only seven ships to be powered up and then ordering Sentinel construction, then jumping to a planet… one that I couldn't identify." Tali said slowly. "You know, in all this excitement, I forgot to ask, how's my father doing?"

"One sec…" James uploaded the data request and targeted the download to his armour computers "He's doing fine, was a bit shocked when he woke up and nearly panicked but he's doing alright now, recovering okay, he should be good to go back to the Fleet around April 15th by the most pessimistic estimates. I hope we can find time between battles to visit him…"

"You want to meet my father?" Tali asked incredulously "Oh, right, we can talk about that later, back to the meeting. Those warships looked too much like the Unidentified Dreadnaughts in the Migrant Fleet for comfort… and according to legend those were passed down from underground vaults on Rannoch, seven, exactly seven…" She shivered "That's pretty creepy, as for why the thing recognized me, I have no clue, except for the vision…"

Liara's avatar appeared among them "I think I know why you had that vision, it seems from the memories me and John have that you and James suffer the same curse as we do, you were destined to be, always be, with one another, yet in the past you were always horribly torn apart… like me and John."

"Sounds like a bad soap opera." Jack snorted from her end.

"For once, Jack, we agree." Miranda smirked at the ex-convict, who rolled her eyes back.

"Still, it's true, if we piece all these visions together." Liara continued "I remember collecting a breeding population of Krogan from the primitive Tuchanka to ships that looked suspiciously like the Keystone, with four pylons arranged in tetrahedral formation. I also remember working on some archive with a photo of John sitting at my workstation. Tali saw leaving the Dyson Sphere with her fleet after the Array, whatever that was, fired, John and James were the ones in charge of firing it, and it seemed it was supposed to kill everyone. I also saw another vision from another past life where I died and became a zombie, but that was beside the point…"

"A zombie?" Grunt asked sceptically "How would that happen?"

"Well, if you count infestation as zombies, it's very much possible either by Zerg or Flood…" Urz texted, using his little holographic QWERTY keyboard.

Liara's image grunted at that "Huh, well let's get back on track, I'm suspecting me, Tali, James, and John had and were together in multiple past lives as well as this one, in at least one of those we were Forerunners in positions of authority." She glanced toward the Quarian involved.

Tali was frowning "So with our psionic signatures, at least, since we didn't have the signature dampers" Those were part of the Passive Camo system, but the group hadn't had that turned on, in favour of somewhat elevated shield recharge rates "engaged, it recognized us… if we were really in positions of authority, and my vision was right… that means…"

Liara finished the thought "You used to be an Admiral in the Forerunner Navy, and we blew up most of the fleet you once commanded, multiple lifetimes ago… I'm not sure what my position was, but if that thing recognized me I must have been pretty prominent… Maybe it's better not to think about it until the next encounter with large Forerunner constructions, you guys should focus on fighting the Covenant for now, I'll see if there's anything on anyone older than the Protheans on my side, talk later, bye!" The projection disappeared with a puff of psychic energy.

"So, uh, guys, anyone get scans on that plating on the Forerunner ships?" John asked, twiddling his fingers.

"Yes, analysis complete." Mordin stated "Plating itself very durable, roughly twice as tough as UEF or Seraphim hull material without fields, however, design of plating is not conductive to use of structural fields, which when applied…" Mordin hit a lot more buttons and the Coalition plating diagrams were lit up by the energy web/lace that was a structural field "Coalition Plating, mass for mass," The reason Cybran units were weaker was because their armour was thinner in favour of packing more firepower/speed/stealth in "is roughly 1.2 times as strong as standard Forerunner hull material against beam, plasma, energy and kinetic weapons. However, the incorporation of structural fields effectively renders biological attacks almost ineffective, and most importantly, makes infestation, which Urz provided a description of, impossible. Forerunner plating is, relative to Coalition ship plating, very thick though, and their shield generators are also likely very powerful, on the order of over a million points by the 3870 numbering system."

"In other words, the Covenant would kick our butts if they got their hands on that fleet." John concluded.

Mordin shrugged "Would depend on weapons capabilities, but, essentially, yes, armour and shields simply too tough."

"Well then good thing we blew them up." Jedore commented from where she sat, before the conversation moved on. The end conclusion was that any future Dyson Spheres would have to be combed for Flood before any attempt was made to seize any Forerunner ships stored there. When communicated directly to Doctor Brackman and the other leaders, there was unanimous agreement, if the Flood could adapt captured tech like Zerg could and were under Reaper influence like Urz had said, they were too dangerous to let live, even if the reward was a fleet of Forerunner ships.

* * *

><p><em>Space near Jericho VII, March 14, 3871<em>

The Covenant ships' slipspace exits had just opened when the Coalition formation's weapons began firing away in unison. As usual, the Covenant returned fire with their entire arsenal, this fleet was a lot larger than previously encountered ones though, over a hundred Destroyers, Cruisers and Carriers with forty CCS BCs, five Battleships plus five Assault Carriers. Loa Tactical Missile racks spewed forth a fusillade of warheads as plasma torpedo launchers on the Covenant ships did the same. The Coalition 3rd Executioner Swarm, now much larger thanks to modification of the definition of an Executioner Clutch instituted on March 12th, after the current organization did not prove sufficient against Covenant capital ships, had arrived one day prior.

Its new strength was still four Executioner Clutches, however each Clutch now consisted of four Battleships, four Fleet Carriers, eight Battlecruisers and eight Escort Carriers, nearly doubling in strength to twenty-four ships instead of fourteen. The lighter Hunter Squadrons had been rapidly phased out, except along the Coalition-Citadel border, after contact with the Covenant and the horrific losses in capital ships that ensued, it had been recognized that the ships they had now were simply insufficient. New ship classes were being rapidly finalized and expected to enter mass production in early July by conservative estimates.

John Shepard's crew had been ordered to sit out of the fight with the _Spirit of Fire_, only contributing in the form of aircraft to the Coalition fleet. They were too valuable in future negotiations with the Citadel to risk, though the Normandy had already been dropped off at Procyon, to be reserved for stealth ops for the crew, the _Spirit_ now being their main vessel. Hannah had literally ordered them to use it for any ops not involving Council Space and to keep it around even if they entered Council Space, the Covenant could be anywhere, and it could just be too dangerous.

Even though John's crew was not participating, that didn't mean they couldn't watch as thousands of weapon pulses, rounds and beams lit up the darkness of space near Jericho VII. John had gone down to the surface in his new ACU already. Fifty-six hundred Strategic Bombers of assorted types shot toward the Covenant fleet like an angry cloud of bees, being swatted down like flies by the powerful plasma turrets, but there were just too many… and too many Revenants. The Stealth Strategic Bombers could fly out of tracking range and then loop back for the attack after throwing off the plasma torpedoes' targeting. Nearly as many air-superiority craft moved toward ten times their number of Seraph fighters in space as the main fleets battered away at one another.

The first ships to buckle under fire were two Escort Carriers on the Coalition side of the battle space. There were just too many plasma projector beams slicing into their shields, bursting the powerful bubbles before smashing up against structural fields, eventually boring through and coring the vessels as crews ejected in the specially modified Geminis.

Then the Covenant began to take losses in vast numbers as the Zealot Space Interception Missiles fired in waves of hundreds, cut down on their starfighters. The sub-munitions of Loa Tactical missiles that had been intercepted by Pulse Laser fire also went after the Covenant Seraphs in droves. Thousands of the little interceptors died without even seeing the enemy under Active Camo and Passive Stealth, and after the third wave of Zealots, three seconds after the first (typical Zealot launchers cycled once per 1.5 seconds), the Geminis and Coronas hit them. Both of the Aerospace Superiority Fighter types were gigantic compared to the Covenant Seraphs, and both had Active Camo as well as Passive Stealth, in the Geminis' case, they also had active stealth, rendering them almost impossible to find in the darkness of space. It was a bloodbath, even though it was so close to the Covenant Fleet that the Coronas could be detected and the Geminis could occasionally show up on sensors, it was still madness as even with more than a ten-to-one numerical ratio the Covenant Seraphs still found themselves getting their asses kicked.

Moments after the Covenant's third Plasma Projector volley destroyed two more Escort Carriers and three Battlecruisers, raising the total ships lost on the Coalition side to two Battleships, seven Escort Carriers and five BCs despite evasive manoeuvres, the Strategic Bombers reached the Covenant line. Three CCS-class Battlecruisers, already hammered by Mavor fire from the Battleships, crumpled immediately under a mad storm of Quark and Proton bombs. Ten Destroyers and Cruisers, already strained by the sheer volume of Oblivion Cannon, Heavy Microwave Laser, Sonance, Mavor and other fire directed at them, fell prey next, despite managing to cut apart more Coalition ships before they were reduced to free-floating chunks no larger than a desk.

Hannah Shepard, sitting in the Bridge Evac Gemini of the CSC Kiev, gathered all her Strategic Bombers, all five thousand-plus of them, and ordered them on a series of attack orders on the Covenant Battleships that were inflicting horrific damage to her own Battleships. It was more worth the effort to kill those than to go after the smaller ships, since each mounted twelve plasma projectors, whereas most others had one or two.

The first went down almost immediately as five thousand-plus detonations raked its shields before cratering and finally cracking apart its hull, literally breaking the ship to pieces of floating, bulbous purple scrap as all the Strategic Bombers soared by, still chucking bomb after bomb at the wreckage as they streamed toward the next target. They were ploughing Seraphs, the few that weren't cleared away by the escorting Coronas' flak-type attacks or the Revenants' AA guns, out of the way, well, more like ramming them apart on their sleek, black and red or white and green hulls, barely feeling the damage of the Seraphs' reactors overloading on impact. Plasma torpedoes removed hundreds of the bombers before they could start flinging bombs at the next target in their lethal fly-by shooting, but that did not matter.

What mattered was that the second Battleship shook, trembled, and the shields buckled under the storm of powerful munitions before the hull began to crater. Fires were raking the beleaguered ship by the time the last of the strategic bombers zipped by toward the fourth battleship, the third just having been pierced by seven Mavor shells that had blown it apart, after many more had been used to pop the shield. The damaged Battleship fell prey to a fusillade of Heavy Oblivion Cannon fire from several damaged Battlecruisers, each of which was cratered and holed in several places but not dead yet.

A fresh group of Strategic Bombers emerged from the various Carriers on the Coalition side of the line, lunging directly toward the escorts of the by now severely disrupted Covenant fleet. Behind them, a Fleet Carrier cooked off despite the efforts of its screening, mostly-destroyed Battlecruisers, which were running purely on remote control after having sustained so much damage, the crews already having ejected, and those ships cooked off too. Thankfully, the Fleet Carrier had already launched all craft, including escape pods, so no one died in that blast…

"FUCK YOOOOUUUU!" Hannah Shepard put her foot down as a lucky shot from a plasma projector managed to hit a crew evac Gemini, bringing her crew death count up from zero to six in a single shot "All damaged ships, set final autopilot course directly for those Assault Carriers, go to Warp for a bigger slam if you can. Fleet Carriers, that's especially important for you!" She barked to a volley of affirmatives, then started directing the Strategic Bombers, having eliminated the Battleships, to begin gouging down on the Cruiser count while the Geminis and Coronas continued swatting every Seraph and weapons turret they could see.

Needless to say, shortly thereafter one of the Assault Carriers present fell prey to being rammed by a mostly-destroyed Escort Carrier straight to the nose, just coming out of Warp so it could hit it at high speed. The resulting blast of the Assault Carrier's reactor cores overloading as the Escort Carrier's huge mass and kinetic energy tore through the ship lit up space around it for a brief moment and destroyed nearly a hundred Coalition starfighters in the blast. The Covenant were a lot more careful now, manoeuvring so that the next ramming attempt on another Assault Carrier missed and the Battlecruiser that had attempted it brewed up and tore itself apart from several more shots before it could come around and try again.

By this time the Third Executioner Swarm had lost a critical number of ships, as had the Covenant, so Hannah began recalling starfighters. What was left of the Coalition fleet jumped away by slipspace to spring the vast trap that laid below on the already-evacuated planet of Jericho VII. The remaining four Assault Carriers, three CCS BCs and seventeen Cruisers and Destroyers descended shakily toward the planet's one visible, silent, towering city.

The Coalition fleet met up with two Ship Gantries on the far side of one of the system's gas giants, hidden from Covenant sensors by a combination of the Gas Giant's interference and their own Passive Stealth and Active Camo. They immediately began repairs of the warships, though it would take a while (read: a few days) before the Executioner Swarm could reach more than half-strength again. It was down to five Battleships, three heavily damaged, nine Fleet Carriers and a handful of BCs and ECs, all sporting battle scars. That was from the original strength of sixteen Battleships, sixteen Fleet Carriers, thirty-two BCs, and thirty-two ECs. The starfighters had also taken horrific losses but with the manufacturing capacity of the FCs and ECs—after they self-repaired of course—that would not be an issue, the issue was the fact that they'd actually lost six crewmembers. They would be out for blood when the time came for the showdown.

* * *

><p><em>Jericho VII, March 14, 3871<em>

As soon as the Covenant landed, they set to work deploying a base, setting up defensive turrets to look over key chokepoints and amassing their forces, many of which had become hopelessly disorganized under the damage their parent ships had endured. That was to be expected, after all, if one wing of your Destroyer gets sheared off by a huge-ass explosive penetrator (read: Mavor shell from a Coalition Battleship) there would naturally be chaos galore. Still, the Covenant managed to get themselves organized quickly, within six hours. It was just in time to start feeling the ground shaking and hear the screaming of the crews of the sniper towers as they toppled from what seemed to be nothing whatsoever other than crushed grass and mud trails moving toward them. Maybe it was a subterranean thing?

John Shepard deactivated the Active Camouflage of his units, leaving a slight discolouration of the air for the Covenant to see, though since they still didn't seem completely scared shitless, he deactivated Passive Camo at the same time as the rain of Mavor Experimental Strategic Artillery shells began pounding a groundside Destroyer, blasting the damaged warship down to ground in three shells before a fourth cooked it off. The area boiled over in chaos as the ships began lifting off toward orbit, expecting it to be orbital bombardment when in reality it was something far more insidious: Mavors, on the ground, far outside the city, firing their active-stealthed semi-guided slugs in a high ballistic arc. To further increase the chaos on the ground, Shepard deactivated his attacking units' passive stealth just as they, a column of Rhinos, Bangers, Vipers and Parafields, started crushing Covenant under their mighty treads. They had been airlifted in by Dragon Fly Stealth Transports (an active stealth system had been installed to compensate for the mere 10 docking clamps as opposed to the 12 of other Tier 2 Air Transports) earlier, making it a more favourable arrangement than rolling in a Fatboy or two.

Another thing that made it more favourable was how the Covenant started glassing their own troops, trying to kill his vehicles. Using the gaps in their shields, his Vipers were slowly scratching away at the point defence laser turrets on the Covenant ships one after another. They didn't have enough oomph to penetrate the hulls fast enough, but they'd be damned if they couldn't punch through the turrets. The Bangers were mowing down anything the Covenant put in the air with near-ridiculous ease as well as laying down high-splash low-damage Electron Flak fire against ground-side targets. That meant setting off whole hordes of Grunts and other Covenant infantry at once, while the Rhinos, despite being attacked from above, continued blasting away at any larger targets they could find, running over the smaller ones as they continued advancing in formation. The plasma torpedoes from above were having a hard time tracking the high speed targets from such low altitudes, though the Parafields blocked most shots anyways, the rest ended up hitting the Covenant's own troops until someone grew enough brain cells to order them to STOP SHOOTING.

The sudden silence of the ships was interrupted by a pair of cruisers blowing up like gigantic grenades from Mavor shells snapping their spines. The others started moving off, giving up their ground troops for dead, a reasonable assumption, as they flew away, firing back with their plasma projectors and glassing the former Covenant camp and the small army of Coalition units rampaging around there. John didn't mind, he could rebuild the army in scant minutes if need be…

On their way out, the Covenant tried to glass the city… and got a Strategic Missile up the ass of an Assault Carrier for their trouble. The five-Gigaton directed yield quantum annihilation device managed to punch through the damaged Assault Carrier's shields and sent the ship crashing down outside the city it had tried to do a fly-by shooting of. The glassing attempt failed as the extremely powerful shields at the tops of the towers, designed to hold off a direct hit from a standard Strategic Missile plus splash damage form up to three more missiles nearby, held the beams at bay. A lot of jaws and mandibles gaped on the fleet before the detonation of that Strategic Missile reminded them of what they were planning to do.

The other ships made a run for it just in time to come head-to-head with the Third Executioner Swarm's remaining warships, mostly repaired, deploying thousands of Strategic Bombers to swarm them. The Covenant ships had all at least taken some damage to their engines, the first thing targeted during the initial space battle, so they couldn't perform an in-atmosphere slipspace jump effectively. That meant trouble for the Covenant as the Third Executioner Swarm held position, staring down the onrushing Covenant ships, the Assault Carriers much larger than even Sovereign, which the same set of crews had fought years ago.

The remaining CCS BCs were first to be targeted and first to fall back to the surface of Jericho VII as the running battle ran through the sky. John sent land units to secure the wrecks via Dragon Fly transports while the battle moved higher up.

The next ships to come crashing to the surface were in pieces: Three Covenant Destroyers. The next was more of a smack-down than anything else, the Executioner Swarm, having focused fire on a five-kilometre-long Assault Carrier, had nearly overwhelmed it when a Fleet Carrier took a critical amount of damage and boosted up in a ballistic arc, popping escape Geminis, and smashed down on the damaged and sluggish Assault Carrier, hard, before the onboard mini-Paragon overloaded and snapped the keel of the ship. That was the largest difference between Coalition and Covenant ships, the Coalition ones were nanolathed, without a keel or keel-like structure, essentially being solidly built throughout, while the Covenant ships were built with a keel, a spine that could be snapped, and snap it did.

Still, the Coalition was also paying hard, the last two Battlecruisers going down in flaming ruin into a lake where they stuck out of the water bow-first, as if proudly displaying the still-firing weapons (including missiles below the water that were bursting up out of the surface) before the cores were destroyed by plasma projectors. A Battleship broke up in mid-air as five Plasma Projectors cut through its structural fields and slashed away into its hull. Aerospace craft were going down by the dozen as they were destroyed by plasma torpedoes, but the Covenant was obviously paying harder, especially now that the Coalition had ground-side support in the form of Mavors and strategic missile silos. The latter were the most dangerous since the Covenant didn't have anything fast or powerful enough to intercept one except plasma projectors, and only Assault Carriers had dorsal plasma projectors for SMD work. The two fleets were effectively grinding each other to scrap, but the Covenant ships had the short end of the stick with thousands of small craft as well as the capital ships striking them every minute.

* * *

><p>Thel Lodamee could feel the ship trembling violently and felt his restraint bed being moved as he woke up. "Jenkins? What's happening?"<p>

"We're engaging in combat, close combat, in Jericho VII's atmosphere, with the Covenant." The Marine answered as he pushed the bed into an airlock and cycled it "The Division Commander has ordered us to be ready to evacuate the ship."

"Evacuate?" Lodamee asked, frowning "Aren't the Covenant going to try a boarding action? Wouldn't it be more honourable to fight to the death?"

Jenkins shook his head "No offence dude but our capital ships have enough flak to tear your boarding craft to tatters before you can get within small-arms range. None of our ships can get damaged enough for the Covenant to launch boarders, if they do get damaged enough to be immobilized and disarmed enough, they cook off, it's what their systems do automatically."

Lodamee frowned "How many crewmen do you guys have?"

Jenkins raised an eyebrow light "A typical ship? Not many, we have more than usual for a Fleet Carrier, just for the sake of having Marines to watch you, not that you need watching, you're honourable enough, you said you'd consider the offer and that means you won't attempt anything until you give us a response."

"You really respect my people's honour that much?" Lodamee was gaping as Jenkins locked his medical bed in position, sitting him up by adjusting the bed "That's more than some of my kind do."

"Well, it might have something to do with the fact that we have powered armour and you don't." The two shared a chuckle at that before the ship lurched slightly. For a Coalition warship, that meant something serious was going on "Fire all pods!" Hannah Shepard's voice barked over the intercom. "The _Kiev_ is about to brew up!"

The pod cover armour slammed open at that, and the modified Gemini shot out at high speed, accelerating rapidly to just under Mach Six as it tore away from the slowly disintegrating Fleet Carrier. The shockwave from the blast made them vibrate slightly, and Jenkins turned to look back as the Gemini fled on auto-pilot, superchargers to full power on the engines. The _Kiev_'s detonation had allowed it to take two Covenant Cruisers with it, and the Division Commander was issuing commands from her own Gemini, which had also fled. "The surviving craft, as all the ships were gone now thanks to the damned Assault Carriers, are to go to ground in the city they had passed and strike from among the towers!" She yelled "If they begin attempting glassing, boost to space and rendezvous at these coordinates!" She input some sets of coordinates, primary, secondary and tertiary. "Then hide in the asteroid cloud!"

The remaining Covenant ships, three Assault Carriers and one last CCS, had no desire to continue fighting, apparently, since they simply headed on toward space. Then again, that may have been for glassing operations, no one could be sure. A final Strategic Missile slapped the CCS to pieces as the ships limped away. They probably would have come around for a glassing run but for the fact that more Coalition warships arrived near Jericho VII.

The 4th Executioner Swarm had arrived, too late to prevent the total loss of the 3rd Executioner Swarm to the Covenant, but in time to, with the _Spirit of Fire_'s help, grab up all the survivors, which was the whole Executioner Swarm's personnel minus sixteen people. The _Spirit_ had already emptied all its bays but for the escape pods to assist in both battles, and provided some long-ranged support with its Sonance Artillery and Heavy Microwave Laser, but it simply couldn't help much for actual fleet slug-outs, Battleships were better for that.

It would take almost a whole day for the Ship Gantries across the Coalition to finish assembling the ships to put the Third Executioner Swarm back to its new, 96-ship, full strength. It wasn't a matter of too few Gantries, it was because a Gantry could finish a Battleship in about eighteen hours, give or take, and the ships had to rally again by Quantum Jump at Jericho VII. After that, the crews would settle into their newly replaced ships, along with some fresh people to replace losses. Still, there was an air of cold determination about the Executioner Swarm. The next battle would be much more vicious, close-quarters, using the limited broadside and rear weapons to full effect in addition to the forward-facing guns.

Ships could be replaced like cogs in the Coalition war machine, crews and unit cohesion could not be replaced so easily. They would make the Covenant pay fifty thousand times over for every crewman they killed, or so the entire Executioner Swarm's crew, roughly a thousand men and women in all, toasted to it that night. The number had been decided due to Hannah's declaration "We have the ten thousand mark already, and a hundred thousand is too vicious for my tastes right now, how about fifty thousand? That's in real battle though, guys, if they want to surrender, follow the conventions!" She'd ordered before initiating the toast.

* * *

><p><em>Covenant Holy City High Charity, March 18, 3871, Ninth Age of Reclamation<em>

The _Truth and Reconciliation_ was STILL listing, despite the efforts of the Huragok, when it left Slipspace a full seven days after entering it, sure, it wasn't quite as ominous as for a water ship, since it only meant one side responded more sluggishly i.e. the whole damned thing had to move slower, but still… Shipmaster Orna Fulsamee was exceedingly agitated, shaken by what he had seen before he retreated. It had been dishonourable to run like that, but someone had to warn the Prophets of what the humans could do, and the Honour Guard around seemed too stupid to do it. He had literally run for his Banshee and crash-landed in the hangar of his CCS-class Battlecruiser. The trip should only have taken one or two days, it had taken seven from the immense amount of damage the _Truth_ had sustained when it was rammed by that human ship.

Okay, so he was kind of lying when he said the ship was listing… a full quarter of its mass was gone, either lost in the collision with the seemingly unperturbed human ship or blasted to useless scrap by the bombers the ship had deployed, they were damned good, he'd give them that… He managed to get his way through traffic control with much difficulty, considering how one of the primary repulsor drives was down and the other was at a little below half capacity thanks to one of those absurdly powerful starfighter bombs hitting the main reactor room. They almost had a core overload, though thankfully it was averted. The secondary thrusters were also barely working with how the whole ship was running on secondary reactors. He hadn't had a good hot shower in a week…

Once they'd pushed through to get permission to dock with the Holy City, the _Truth_ was towed to the repair yards on the city to commence repairs. In the meantime, he was whisked away for a meeting with the Prophets, though why they had to do that when the Prophet of Regret came off his ship with him he didn't know. Still, Regret wasn't as nasty as his colleague Truth was, and, upon reaching the Hierarchs' Chamber, turned to him. "Go take a bath, Shipmaster, I'll be doing the same, we cannot meet with Truth and Mercy smelling like this."

"Yes you can." Truth stated bluntly from inside the room, opening the door and thus ordering them in. The High Hierarch's nose wrinkled as the two neared him "On second thought, Regret, Shipmaster, perhaps you should consider taking a bath first."

Mercy appeared to be attempting to hold down his last meal "Agreed."

Regret smirked "Thank you, noble Hierarchs." He said at the same time as Orna, who he'd started to befriend, considering there hadn't been that much intelligent conversation on the ship over the last seven days.

* * *

><p>After a good, refreshing shower, and getting his armour and under-suit washed, Orna finally felt he was living like a proper Sangheili being… and spent ten minutes waiting in the Hierarch's Chamber for Regret to finish his bath. Even Mercy was grousing about his fellow Hierarch right up until the guy came in the door with "I heard that Mercy!"<p>

Truth snorted at the teasing between the other Hierarchs "Right, anyways, begin your report, Shipmaster, what did you see that Regret here did not?"

"After the surrounding area had been cleared by bombers deployed by the humans, dropping a sort of blue-white fire, not plasma, actual fire, that burnt away everything caught under it like the fires of hell, they brought in what seemed to be transports loaded with giant walkers. The machines fired off the transports and cleared the platform for soldiers to jump out of a starfighter so large I could have mistook it for a corvette. Their armour was resistant to everything the Honour Guards present could throw at them, and their weapons could cut through our shields too fast for us to deal with. When it came to their investigating the Apex, I saw something that had never occurred before. This… human female, emerged from nothingness in a flash of light, without armour, and walked toward the control sphere."

"Perhaps it is the active camouflage we have seen the humans use?" Mercy wondered.

"No, they require armour for that from what I know… What was really strange was that the letters of the control sphere seemed to sort themselves and lit up in four patterns when the female and another one approached. They put their hands to the glowing letters, and the globe glowed brighter than it had when we used Anders, the one without the clearance." Orna took a breath "What truly shook me was the final activation of the dreadnoughts and the words that seemed to come from the Apex Installation itself, 'Authorized Users Detected, Access Granted, welcome back, Admiral Zorah, Mistress T'Soni.' That alone was scary as I watched from nearby, but when the Arbiter ran the female through, the one who had appeared from nowhere, she shook it off as if it was nothing. The black-armoured male who accompanied her bowled over and began to beat up the Arbiter as she casually pulled the Energy Sword from her back through no means I could see. She gripped the handle and watched the male battle the Arbiter. When the Arbiter tried to stab the male through the chest, the blade had no real effect on the armour other than to leave a scorch mark in the paint." Orna shivered "When the male was about to kill the Arbiter, the female stopped him, saying that she was merely an image… What can these humans do if they can create images to fight for them?"

"Continue." Truth said, paying rapt attention to the Shipmaster.

"Then she said she wanted to be the one to kill the one who tried to kill her 'boyfriend'." Orna stated.

"What does 'boyfriend' mean?" Mercy asked.

Regret turned his head toward the other Hierarchs "Me and Shipmaster Fulsamee have talked this over, it seems likely it means her mate according to him, it might come in useful later, but for now, continue, Shipmaster."

Orna drew up a hologram and started playing the recording "So she was holding this giant ball of energy over her head, almost like a Scarab's main gun in size, with one hand while wielding the Arbiter's energy sword in the other. She told the three holding the line at the walkway to the Apex to stop shooting." On cue the three on-screen ceased firing. "And she chucked the ball of energy causally over her shoulder, destroying everyone on the walkway." The charging troops on the walkway stopped and began to flee the rolling ball of doom. "Then she immobilized the Arbiter through unknown means, possibly her mind, and slew him." The recording ended, as did Orna's narrative "That was when I heard they would destroy the place and decided to leave so that I could make my report to you."

"You did well, Shipmaster." Regret stated "Did he not, Mercy? Truth?"

Truth nodded "Yes, you did well, Shipmaster, you and your crew's survivors are entitled to rest on the Holy City until your ship is repaired, enjoy it while it lasts. We shall hear the rest of the report from Regret here. See you soon, Shipmaster, see you soon."

Orna bowed in deference "By your leave, noble Hierarchs." He left the room, keeping his head bowed in respect.

Regret turned to his compatriots "This war with the humans has just become a lot more complicated."

Truth's mouth was hanging open "I was about to say that."

* * *

><p>AN: Anyone catch the Nero reference?

Oh, and thanks to Mastermind4892's insistent prodding, I have finally gotten to work on ME: GC, the first chapter is now up, but expect it to be a sideline project compared to this…

REVIEW! (And read my A/Ns at the start of chapters, they contain important info)


	5. Citadel Worries

A/N: How is it possible to write a T-rated fic for an M-rated game (Halo, Mass Effect, etc.)? I wonder…

**Brief Lesson/semi-Codex** because I'm too lazy to write a real one, and because you can't cross-reference in a real one: A Yolona Oss has a 500 Gigaton total yield, 400 GT of which are concentrated in the blast zones right around the equator of the detonation and the thirty-degree cone in front of it (15 in any direction). Typically accepted numbers are 1:3 down vs. around or 1:1 depending on the situation. If it hits the surface of ground or water, it defaults to the former to achieve maximum sweep, in space combat or hitting something in mid-air, it generally routes the entire blast power completely ahead of the detonation and delegates none to the equatorial blast. Note that the remaining 100 GT are enough to generally clear everything else not in the main blast zones. An also observable thing is that this directed yield is equal to about SEVEN SUPER MAC rounds (56x7=392 GT). According to Halo Canon a Super MAC can cut through two Covenant Capital ships (assume Assault Carriers) and destroy a third in one shot, as in it can kill one SUPERCARRIER in one or two shells. Hence, anything that will be more than free-floating atoms after having a YO shoved up its ass must be a Super Carrier! And that's only part of the bow plating that will survive, most likely, especially if the shields cage in the blast after the initial breach of the bubble. This is why only standard Strategic Missiles were employed on Jericho (think about it), and of course these days Yolona Oss Missiles aren't as cheap as FA (the game, which has a missile only 600 mass and similarly low energy, but absurdly OP) suggests, 24000 mass in 60 minutes is a huge damper on anyone's economy. Still, one shot from a standard Strategic Missile Launcher, at its current 10-GT directed yield, is enough to severely damage a Covenant Capital ship or, if it's taken practically any significant damage already, destroy it in one shot.

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Citadel Worries<p>

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Spirit of Fire, April 20, 3871_

John had just returned from a visit to Liara on Hagalaz. Sure, Hallucination sex was great for both of them, but it just felt different from sleeping in the same bed, wrapped securely in each other's arms… Okay, yeah, he was a sap, finding cuddling with his lover a better alternative to fucking her image's, and his own, brains out over and over, but still… "Commander, there is a message from High Command, President Ratheen to be exact." EDI called. They'd also gone to send Tali's father and the other Quarians off from Procyon back to the Migrant Fleet, but that was beside the point.

"Patch it through, EDI." John stated calmly.

President Ratheen, the go-to-President for when the seraphim Republic was in the midst of crises or wars, though in peace he was replaced by others, generally, appeared on the screen "Commander Shepard, we've received news that some of the ICs have made an alliance with a band of Kig-Yar merchants, you know, Jackals as we call them these days. There is an IC in an area here," He highlighted a system near Seraphim Republic space, and then zoomed in to show its asteroid belt and the settlement built there "known as the Rubble, that has apparently been dealing in weapons with the Covenant. They represent a serious security breach if they provide star charts to Coalition assets. Even the colonies bypassed by the Covenant will be in grave danger."

"What would you have me do? Exterminate them?" John asked, frowning.

Ratheen nodded brusquely "Yes," at John's growl of protest he continued "at least the Kig-Yar presence on the moon of this outer system gas giant. They seem to be using the area as a barracks and possible breeding ground for hundreds of thousands of Unggoy, Grunts. That will likely prove to be a nuisance later if any boarding actions occur or groundside engagements, so we must destroy it. Your ship is the only one currently not engaged in operations right now, hence why I'm contacting you."

"How many ships are authorized to be used for evacuating the citizens of the Rubble?" John questioned.

Rhianne showed up next to Ratheen on another holo-pedestal "None, Commander, they may be former Aeon, but they have been unwilling to negotiate so far and have even used mass accelerators against our envoy ships when we did not leave. It saddens me greatly to know that they must be left where they are as long as they do not accept that the Covenant is a threat to all our kind, but there we have it…" Her normally ever-calm eyes widened slightly as she looked to the side for a moment "Wait, we are receiving intel from the stealth corvettes we have in-system that the Kig-Yar are turning on the colonists right now, change of plans, Commander Shepard, go in and assist the Rubble Defence Force in repelling the Covenant attack, get moving!"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Spirit of Fire, The Rubble, April 20, 3871<em>

They exited quantum FTL with a flash, and almost immediately the shields flared under mass accelerator fire. Thankfully, the guns seemed to be Citadel-purchased and weren't that much of a threat. Still, that meant the Covenant could potentially get their hands on Mass Effect technology, and any tech given to the enemy was a bad, BAD thing. EDI's electronic bellowing managed to get the Rubble to stop firing though, it consisted roughly of "ARE YOU ALL CRAZY? WE'RE HERE TO SAVE YOUR ASSES FROM THE KIG-YAR THAT ARE ATTACKING YOU!" though of course the language was far more vulgar.

Needless to say, they quickly were accepted and the Restorer shuttle the team used went down to the station with the ground crew minus James, Legion and Mirala, who stayed behind for command duty (James) and ship security. They dropped at various points around the station to fight off the Kig-Yar boarders, first disabling their boarding Spirit Dropships with Restorer or INL fire, since the former tended to just blow the Dropships up…

Tali was commenting across squad comms as John and Garrus hit the deck shooting, the final pair off the Restorer "This smells like that time I had chicken with James, except I didn't overcook it that time."

Samara, who was partnering Tali, questioned with a frown in the PIP windows of the squad as they gunned down more Jackals. "Aren't you dextro-amino? How would you eat chicken?"

Tali was burning more Kig-Yar to crisps "I don't know, it smelled good, so I started eating before James stopped me, didn't get allergies or anything, so I guess it's not that bad for me at least?" These Jackals' wrist energy shields were a primitive concept with new technology, but they were still quite worthless when it came to resisting Flamethrower fire, especially with the Coalition's formulae. Sure, it was ineffective against fields or shields with the volume her flamethrower could manage, but it went around the Jackals' energy shields easily, or just fried them. The formula still worked in the firebombs of Scorcher T1 Attack Bombers and Janus T2 Fighter-Bombers, but that was in many tons worth of formula in the bombs, not the dose she was dispensing.

"This is too easy." Samara remarked, smashing a shield-wall with a biotic Shockwave before spraying down the flying Kig-Yar soldiers with her Gauss LMG, blasting them with high explosive ammunition before flicking it to armour-piercing, it would be more efficient if she wanted to get body-piercing effect. It was something she'd gotten used to since joining the Normandy crew, as they still called themselves, since with Mass Effect based weapons Body-Piercing was almost unheard of except for sniper rifles.

Tali responded with "Agreed."

* * *

><p>In another part of the station, Jedore blasted a Jackal shield-wall with her Phasic Shotgun while their beam rifle bolts simply bounced off her over-shield before it popped and her personal shield began taking damage. Still, she was breaking through the shield-wall, one Jackal at a time. Each Phasic Shotgun blast would pop a shield and a Laser Battle Rifle bolt would put the avian down for good. Next to her, Miranda was also laying on the pain with her SMGs, popping one shield after another, in addition to slamming Jackals into each other all over the place and firing the occasional overload pulse that would shut down a few shields, just before those Jackals went down under fire. Their beam rifles were practically jokes, at most something between an Assault Bolt and Sniper Bolt from an LBR in strength, and with a much lower firing rate than the battle rifles, even slower than sniper mode, which was only what? Three bolts per second? "This is a joke, right Miranda?" Jedore asked as she killed the last Jackal with a Sniper Overcharge bolt, looking at her dark blue armoured comrade with her green helmet optics.<p>

Miranda shrugged and looked up with her yellow ones "More or less, let's get moving."

"Agreed…"

* * *

><p>Jacob and Kasumi were fighting as one body in a literal flood of Kig-Yar, gunning away with Gauss LMG, dual SMGs, and their special abilities, biotics and tech. The flood of Kig-Yar was slowly dwindling to a river… well, two rivers, one of Kig-Yar, one of their blood. Jacob and Kasumi were advancing from one pile of corpses to the next, gunning down everything their HUDs tagged as hostile. They met up with Jack and Grunt, and figured out just why the flood had become a stream, since both were standing outside a sealed section of the Rubble with guilty grins and obvious Gauss Chaingun puncture marks on the walls. "You vented a section of the station to space." Jacob concluded.<p>

Jack nodded and grinned "Yep, killed all the chicken lemurs too."

Jacob sighed "Nice… let's move."

* * *

><p><em>The Rubble, April 20, 3871<em>

"You gotta wonder how the hell WE got stuck with this job." N'tho Sraomee grumbled, poking at the energy field and bars that held them.

Usze Tahamee smirked from where she sat "Relax, N'tho, Regret wanted these Kig-Yar rebels taken out, we're just here to do the job."

"Elites, we have an offer for you, help us repel the Jackals and we'll let you leave in one of their vessels." A voice said over the speakers.

"We'll do it!" N'tho barked before grousing "Why do they call us Elites?"

"Because you're better than the other races in the Covenant, or so we thought, that's why we call you Elites!" The PA snapped back before it let them out of the cell, arrows pointing the way to the nearest Kig-Yar ship.

Usze snorted as she pulled her friend along "Let's just get going, N'tho, if that name's supposed to be complimentary, let them use it."

A different voice, a leader's voice, came over the comm. "Take the ship, we will assist, we're both here to destroy those Kig-Yar on that moon, cooperation furthers mutual goals." John Shepard stated, there would be no point killing those two Elites right now, so he might as well turn them loose on the Jackals, though if they didn't do the job, well, they'd have to be put down. Until then, as long as they didn't find out about the Citadel and Council Space, all was good, they would help spread fear among their people.

* * *

><p>"You think maybe we didn't leave enough for the Elites to have their fun?" Grunt asked, looking around at the piles of Jackal corpses.<p>

Jedore snorted "If so, too bad, they can go file a complaint with Coalition High Command."

Samara was watching the approaching orange neutral-hostile contacts on Radar and Omni—they were armed, but haven't fired at allies yet—grow closer. "Elites incoming." She called as she spun a Kig-Yar around with her biotics, holding it by the ankle while spinning its head into walls and other corpses fast enough to snap the neck, until the head tore off and flew at the Elites just as they came in.

A Needler shot stopped the progress of the head short as the two sides watched one another warily. "You guys aren't human, are you?"

Samara threw another corpse into the ceiling fast enough to paint the plates. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

Grunt snorted with laughter "Now why would you possibly think that?" His armour was hiding his not-so-human figure at the moment.

"You're practically demons." The taller of the two Elites, though it was by a narrow margin, remarked, glancing around at the piles of Kig-Yar corpses. She was the female Sangheili Spec Ops member if John's memory, and being Cybran that was very reliable, served him right.

"So we may be." Shepard remarked lightly "But remember, we're both here to eliminate the Kig-Yar rebels. If you want to try doing it alone, go ahead, but the sheer size of that installation means we're going to need the _Spirit_'s three hundred strategic bombers."

Usze gaped, as did N'tho "Three… three hundred?"

"Why do you think our Fleet Carriers can do a LOT of damage against your ships? Sure, the bombs aren't as effective as on our shields but they can still tear your ships to scrap." The shield system of the Covenant was more linearly scaled than the Coalition, so strategic bombers did less damage while high-yield and low-yield weapons did more. They were also less effective against weapons pulses lasting more than five seconds, that was excellent, it meant Heavy Microwave Lasers, at their current much-cranked-up rating, were still effective against Covenant warships, even though the Coalition still lost more ships in every engagement, they could be replaced in days if not hours by the ship gantries in Coalition Space, and the crews generally survived unscathed thanks to the modified Geminis that served escape pod duty.

Usze lowered her weapon first, waving N'tho's down too "Alright… we'll leave you guys to it…"

"Good, the Coalition doesn't like you interfering with IC affairs. If you really piss us off, we shall darken the skies of every one of your worlds, stay away from the Independent Colonies!" John warned them. "We're leaving, Grunt, Samara, Jedore, move out." The group trooped out of the other end of the hangar, leaving the Elites with the ship. "Sorry we didn't leave any for you guys to kill!" the human called from where he'd left before the airlock cycled shut.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Spirit of Fire, The Rubble, April 20, 3871<em>

"So, guys, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" John smirked.

"Scare the shit out of the Elites by showing off our blowing up of the Unggoy breeding base?" EDI asked monotonously.

"Well, put bluntly, yes."

"Already done, Commander, Elite-controlled vessel is holding position one hundred thousand kilometres from Metisette." EDI stated, smirking.

John nodded "Good, start unloading the Strategic Bombers, send the Revenants first, then the Shockers, use full active camo and stealth where applicable." He input the orders directly into the computer with his implants.

* * *

><p>"I'm scared…" N'tho squeaked, hugging Usze tightly and shivering.<p>

Usze facepalmed "Stop being a drama king, N'tho."

The male let go "Okay, yeah, I was being overdramatic, but don't you think the Coalition having to tell us where their stuff is, even their 'Fleet Carrier', is a bit scary? We can't detect them AT ALL."

Usze sighed "True, it is scary, but so be it, at least our capital ships can pick up on them, and we can destroy them… with a LOT of work."

* * *

><p><em>Metisette, April 20, 3871<em>

The Anti-Aircraft guns didn't stand a chance against the enemies they couldn't detect, nor properly see (well less than one ten thousandth visibility). Revenant Proton Bombs blasted the AA installations to scrap and rained down bombs on the ships, with their shields down, even the cruisers present were not too challenging to hurt. The Shockers came in immediately afterward and blasted the ships and shuttles back to ground, not that many shuttles survived the large, diffuse blasts of the Proton Bombs. Quark Bombs tagged the remaining vessels, drilling through hulls and bulkheads with equal efficiency, burning out the cruisers present with absurd ease, as their shield generators were already downed by damage from the Revenants. The Spirits and Banshees around had already been handled by the Revenants' AA guns, and the few Seraphs that got off the ground far enough to not be destroyed in the powerful explosions were dealt with by the same Electron Autoguns of the Revenants.

The second pass of the bombers totalled the facility, flattening all the structures into the ground, there were relatively few kills though, since everyone exposed in the open or in areas open to the open, had been killed in the blast waves of the first storm of bombs. Clouds of boiled methane rose from the methane lakes like towering thunderclouds as the immense amounts of energies released by the bombs vaporized much of the methane ponds of the area. It wasn't even from the bombs themselves, but the heat waves from them, that the methane gained the needed energy.

The bombers wheeled back for a third run, then a fourth, until John Shepard had been satisfied that the "No Sentient life forms detected" sensor report was telling the truth and recalled the fighters. "Alright, Elites, you can leave now and report to your superiors that the Kig-Yar and Unggoy here have been exterminated." He said cheerily, and the Elite-controlled vessel jumped to slipspace without responding. "That was fun." John remarked "though it wasn't so complicated after the boarding action was over."

* * *

><p><em>Covenant Holy City High Charity, April 22, 3871, Ninth Age of Reclamation<em>

"The report you brought isn't half bad." Regret told the two before sending them off and entering the Hierarchs' Chambers. "Brothers, I have discovered through my agents critical information about the Coalition of Species."

"What is it, Regret?" Mercy asked, annoyed.

"They are divided into multiple factions. The most frequent names seem to be the Cybran Nation, UEF, Aeon Illuminate, and Seraphim Republic." Regret stated quickly "Another frequent name in the archives obtained from these 'Independent Colonies' was the 'Citadel Council'. We have encountered each of the factions in battle, except this Citadel Council, perhaps we should venture out to meet them. They may agree to a combined attack on the Coalition, the losses we have suffered in the war thus far have been alarming, and it seems the Coalition is replenishing its fleet as fast as we are. Not days after the total destruction of one of their battle fleets the same commander returned with another full-sized fleet and forced us to retreat from a battle."

"Hmm, perhaps indeed we should send out scout ships to check for this 'Citadel Council'… are any pointers as to where they are?" Truth asked with interest

Regret sighed "No, it just says this and this relay and such nonsense… Well, the only really useful thing we got from that deal was the location of this one colony world we missed, named Kholo… Maybe we should send Orna Fulsamee and the Truth and Reconciliation with the Fleet of Righteous Vigilance and glass the planet just to show the Coalition that it cannot always win…"

* * *

><p><em>Kholo System, April 22, 3871, Ninth Age of Reclamation<em>

"Nothing? NOTHING in orbit?" Orna Fulsamee was more than a little taken aback by that, it was stupendously unlikely given the fact that other planets he'd seen reports of typically had medium-sized fleets waiting to attack Covenant ships… though they typically lost more of their own in the process when fighting anything heavier than Cruisers and Destroyers. "Can you repeat that check?"

"Yes, Shipmaster… there's nothing in orbit, Shipmaster." The Sensor officer stated again.

Orna tapped his mandibles thoughtfully "You'd think they'd have at least a few orbital defences, but I guess it is a small colony… very well, let us finish the job and get out of here before they bring in a fleet…" He didn't know, but in the minutes the Covenant ships had spent hanging around, tense and on the alert, the Coalition settlement had already begun evacuation procedures.

"Wait, Shipmaster." The Prophet of Conviction held up a hand "We shall do this in a different way, guide your plasma projector and carve the glyph of Faith into the surface of the planet, here, with the largest colony in the middle, so that they may see their destruction seemingly passing them by before we collectively open fire and begin glassing the planet."

"With all due respect, noble Conviction…" Orna started, it was one of the most harebrained schemes he'd ever heard of. Having been in military academy with Thel Vadam and Rtas Vadum meant that was pretty damned harebrained, since the three of them had collaborated in many mad schemes to prank the instructors. Of course, they hadn't been caught even once, but still, they'd agreed that their plans generally defined some mixture of insanity, stupidity, and genius.

"Fine, amend the order, move the first stroke beginning with their largest colony, keep firing until you burn through." Conviction growled.

Orna sighed as he took the controls "Very well, noble Prophet, we shall do it this way… this may take a while though."

* * *

><p>It had taken two beams to pop each building's shields, and another to destroy each, but he'd done it, he'd blazed a trail through the settlement (completely unaware he'd destroyed multiple evacuating truckloads of civilians but not the Quantum Gates in the colony), but Orna had finally finished marking his way. Now that he was on normal open ground again, the carving could go a LOT faster, the rest of the process finishing in a few long bursts. He sighed as he glared at his "handiwork", before turning to Conviction "Are you satisfied, sir?"<p>

"Very well, Shipmaster, order the rest of the fleet to open fire and glass the planet, may the foul Coalition burn in the fires of our weapons!" Conviction spread his arms grandly. Orna groaned internally, why did such a drama king get "bound" to his ship again? Why hadn't he been more direct when saying Conviction was too dramatic for his own good?

* * *

><p><em>Procyon, April 22, 3871<em>

Elite Commander Dostya's eyes flashed orange as the newest news from the front came in, Kholo, near the eye-wall of a large Quantum Hurricane that had been moving through the area, had just gone silent. The cyclone was well over 200 light-years in diameter, based around the galactic ecliptic like all disturbances, storms and hurricanes were. Even with multiple Gates coordinating, a secure link had been difficult to secure with the colony. The civilians had begun evacuating as soon as the Covenant fleet arrived overhead, but they hadn't been fast enough, not this time, not even the vengeful 29th and 42nd Executioner Swarms currently engaging the enemy had arrived quickly enough to prevent the planet from being glassed, since even Warp Travel was affected by Quantum Hurricanes to be slightly slower than normal, enough to allow the Covenant three hours to glass the colony.

The war had entered a new phase, the first civilian casualties just having occurred. It was time for the kiddie gloves to come off. Damn it, that would have to wait, New Harmony and Troy were under attack. She quickly routed the nearest free Executioner Swarms to deal with them, noting it happened to be Ariel Williams' and, the kid just having earned that position of authority, Ivan Brackman's. Dostya smiled, she hoped he did as well as she expected, after all, the boy had genes from her too, even though he didn't know it, her son had to be able to handle this, it was in his blood… or so she hoped.

* * *

><p>AN: As Orna Fulsamee is replacing the unnamed Sangheili Shipmaster here, I will devise a way for him to survive Alpha Halo and continue fighting, though most of the other stuff will still go by canon.


	6. The New AntiIliupersis

A/N: Zazi the Beast raised a good point, here's my answer: The smallest Assault Bots the Coalition fields are the T1 Light Assault Bots, a Mech Marine is 8 meters tall, 70 tons, not good for fighting inside a ship. The Marines would be good, but they'd need a lot of them. The ships in the Dyson Sphere had already begun to activate, so as the Covenant had already crewed them (gone inside, despite the ships still being locked down from launching) they would fall into Covenant hands, Mordin says it would be a disaster, so mote it be. As Mordin said, and this is true, structural fields render infestation by Flood or even Zerg totally impossible, so Coalition ships can't be infested. The real problem is the small hallways of ships and the fact that the Covenant already occupy them, and if the Flood infests the Covenant they can get off-world. Hey, the Flood might not be able to open FTL wormholes with their combined minds like the Zerg can (how do you think a number of Broods went from Char to Aiur in one jump in the Starcraft 1 Campaign?) but they can hijack those ships, and that would mean disaster for the rest of the Galaxy. The Coalition would be able to get around faster by ACU and probably block the Flood from their worlds by orbital defences and evac protocols, plus glassing protocols to eradicate biomass the Flood could use, but it would mean more or less exterminating everyone else by ACU warfare to prevent the Flood gaining too much steam. Obviously, being the sole power is not a desirable outcome, since the leaders know that without any outside pressure, the Coalition would be in danger of collapse within fifty years.

Anyways, about other things: I only have a copy of Halo 1 for PC, I don't own Xbox, I rely on the Wiki for information. I don't even own any Halo books! I just needed something able to stand up to the Coalition, though a war of attrition would still be a thorough and resounding defeat. Oh, and I needed to introduce how Earth II came to exist, and the origin stories of many of the races.

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: The New Anti-Iliupersis<p>

_New Harmony, April 22, 3871_

The 2nd Executioner Swarm was going toe-to-toe with a large contingent of Covenant ships, small types… Frigates. It was total madness, but it did reveal why they hadn't encountered too many frigates in battle before, though as they were almost the same as Cruisers, they may have been misidentified before. Sure, they had MORE plasma torpedo launchers (plasma turrets) and Pulse Lasers than Cruisers, and hence were better against starfighters, but they lacked what really made a difference against Coalition ships: Plasma Projectors.

In less glorified terms, Ariel Williams' fleet was utterly shredding the Covenant ships. All ninety-six of the Battleships, Fleet Carriers, Battlecruisers and Escort Carriers were in the fight along with thousands of Strategic Bombers, Aerospace-Superiority Fighters, assorted T3 Gunships and a few Spook Spy Planes. With only a scout flotilla on the Covenant side, it was hardly a fair fight. Though the starfighters were being lost faster than normal, it was only the Shockers, Coronas and Restorers that were taking any real damage at all, thanks to the active stealth of Geminis and Revenants.

The Covenant seemed to have had enough, after losing something close to fifty frigates against an enemy they didn't expect to show up so fast. As they fled, Ariel finished reading the report on the Battle of Kholo. "Launch a slipspace probe after them! Don't let them get away!" She snarled, her beautiful face (Ashley complained when her mother was around that Ariel attracted more attention than she did) contorted in fury.

Her flagship, the _Razor's Edge_, fired off the probe into a slipspace aperture the Razor was holding open before letting it close after the probe. It was effectively a bulked-up Spook Spy Plane (the newest model thereof) with a slipspace drive fitted (if it was a Subspace Probe it would be a Warp drive), and a quantum transmitter. It would track the retreating Covenant warships and allow a deep strike, since the Covenant's navigation systems had managed to fry data pertaining to the Covenant's systems every time before being captured. Recon groups into Covenant space hadn't found much besides pointless colonies that held no real strategic value for the Covenant.

* * *

><p><em>Troy System, April 22, 3871<em>

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED." Ivan's computer stated mechanically, the young Cybran commander smirked, excellent, it would help tip the battle in his favour. The _CSC Apocalypse Now_ was near but not quite at the back of the 54th Executioner Swarm, which was battering and being battered by the Covenant fleet that they were standing bow-to-bow with. Coalition warships were designed to be able to focus effectively all their firepower (other than a few auxiliary turrets near the stern of the ship, behind the "tower" of every capital ship) to a firing cone slightly above the horizontal plane, directly ahead of the warship in question. Hence, battle lines were quite effective, and since the Coalition warships were stable, manoeuvrable, and very mobile, they could pack tighter than Covenant ships, so much so that they could cover each other with their shields, and it restricted Covenant weapons coverage on them while allowing full coverage from his ships.

Next to his Fleet Carrier in the formation, a Battleship faltered, popping escape pods, before it was thrown into FTL just as the Covenant ships started scattering… it wasn't enough, Coalition warships didn't have to point in the direction of their jumps after all. The one-kilometre-long projectile smashed into and through a Covenant Cruiser before its subspace bubble disintegrated and it came fully into normal space still at high speed, intersecting with an unfortunate Covenant Frigate and snapping it in half just before the Battleship began to brew up, fires burning through it and sensitive systems automatically frying as it was destroyed. Part of the reason Warp jump was not typically used in the Coalition was that despite advanced systems it could still be a potential traffic hazard, as had just been demonstrated. The next ship to brew up was a Coalition Fleet Carrier, which set off an Escort Carrier that had been more or less adrift close by, both crews already having fled. The Covenant were also taking horrific losses, Cruiser after cruiser falling to the hordes of Strategic bombers while the Restorers and Geminis smashed away at the Frigates, long since having cleared the battle space of the futile Seraph starfighters.

The Covenant ships turned to flee, and Ivan noted the abrupt approach of more contacts on the slipspace sensors headed in-system. The colony of Troy didn't own as many Quantum Gates as it probably should have, hence evacuation was rather slow. He'd need to hold the position, or at least prevent the Covenant from glassing the planet, until the civilians could get out. Reinforcements were currently unavailable because they were engaging other Covenant fleets all along the border, hence he'd have to make do… "How many Battleships and Assault Carriers does the Covenant have?" He questioned upon sighting the oncoming colossal ships. "Damn it, fall back!" He barked, watching a plasma projector beam cut down six Restorers in one shot before scorching the structural fields of a Gemini and stopping there. "That huge signature… it's… IT'S A SUPER CARRIER!" Ivan shouted in alarm into his comm.-link. Apparently the sensors had mistaken it for several Assault Carriers and Battleships… crap, CRAP!

"Gee, calm down man, Thalia can handle stuff ground-side." One of his officers grumbled, earning the woman a glare before Ivan turned back to the transmission options.

"Thalia, how fast can you get a YO online?" He growled urgently at the young Aeon woman, who smirked and shook her head at his tone.

"Not very, if you can hold the Covenant fleet from beginning glassing operations though I might have time. If they deploy ground troops, then that's even better" Thalia shrugged "It'll give me a chance to massacre them. Then, you can use ramming on the Super Carrier if need be."

Ivan was not surprised, nor was he amused, her nonchalance generally made for good laughs, but right now it was her life on the line goddamn it! "Thalia, be serious."

Thalia sighed "I am, Ivan, you just hold them up there and I'll give them some swift kicks to the bell, Kael out." She cut the channel.

Ivan was busy micromanaging the battle even while talking. Right now, his ships had moved out of the way of the oncoming Super Carrier, other than a Fleet Carrier that had been crippled and was nearly finished anyways. The ship disgorged its last fighters, even the unused evac Geminis, and they flew away before it accelerated toward the behemoth rushing toward it. Its FTL drives were disabled, and so it would go for a head-on crash.

The 54th Executioner Swarm kept on pounding the other Covenant ships as the Super Carrier lashed out harder at the failing but still accelerating Fleet Carrier. Ivan had ordered them to ignore the two ships for now and instead focus on whittling down the 27-km-long ship's escorts first. The much smaller projectile smashed head-on into the larger ship's shields, it weapons long since silenced and most of its mass vaporized… a brilliant explosion lit up space as the Paragon resource generator went off. The Super Carrier's shields rippled slightly under the large yield of the Paragon as well as the collision mass of the Fleet Carrier's remains. But still it barrelled through the heart of the Coalition formation before swinging around, batting two more Battlecruisers out of the sky easily, managing it far too easily…

Ivan instantly scattered his remaining ships, re-forming the four Executioner Clutches. They'd each been whittled to a bit over half strength, but it would be enough to hold this mass of Covenant ships, a handful of cruisers and destroyers, with a single Super Carrier… or so he hoped. His hand seemed to almost instinctively be itching to reach for the recall switch for Thalia's ACU, the only one currently deployed on the planet, but he stopped it. He couldn't let that get in the way of saving the civilians, besides, it would take more than one or even two plasma projector bursts to kill an ACU these days, and as the Covenant knew nothing of ACU warfare they wouldn't target her specifically. If her ACU fell below half structural fields though, he'd immediately recall her, even if she tore his head off afterward, it was standard recall procedure… he wasn't about to admit to anything else.

The Covenant had reached the surface, but they seemed rather wary of the ships over-head, which were in a stand-off with them, neither side firing. The plasma projector turrets of the Covenant ships were all facing up, for obvious reasons, hence Ivan knew their plan was working… so far. "Thalia, be quick about that Yolona Oss." He called.

"I know, I'm crashing my mass economy doing it!" She replied. "Can't crash my energy economy though, or these Twilights will stop working and we'll be in big trouble."

Ivan rolled his eyes, as neither fleet was really doing anything in this stand-off other than the Covenant deploying troops to the surface. "I know that, be careful, Thalia."

"Your worrying is pretty cute, Ivan, if I didn't know better, I'd think you had feelings for me, LOL!" Thalia chuckled as she shut the channel.

Ivan, already knowing nothing new had happened while they were talking, met his console's desk surface with his head with an audible clunk and groan of irritation. Dominic called over from his ship with a private link while Ivan's forehead was still on his desk "Hey Ivan, listened in on that one, she's even more clueless than I am, eh?"

Ivan lifted his head and surveyed the unchanged situation again on his strategic displays before replying "Hallelujah, tell me something I don't know. Oh well, if she's Aeon, then we'll do this the Aeon way."

Dominic raised his eyebrows while also watching the strategic display "The problem with the Aeon way is that she might take forever to notice you are male or that she's not just one of the guys to you."

Ivan shrugged, watching the ground troops closing distance with the Covenant "I'm not too worried, if I'm always here, she'll notice me eventually."

"But will that eventually be before she hooks up with someone else, confident that you're gay? Or will she only realize that other guy exists and not you?" Dominic was making a good point, but he wasn't treating the currently effectively paused battle seriously enough in Ivan's opinion…

"We can talk about this later, Dom, in private, for now, focus on the fight."

"There isn't a fight, Ivan, I just want to make sure the next time she's stuck bunking with you, she doesn't hear you mumbling her name in your sleep." now that Dom had gotten together with Annika, Thalia and Ivan were regularly bunking in the same room when situations cropped up or when they were on duty periods. "You do NOT want her finding out by being creeped out."

"What don't you boys want me to find out?" Thalia asked, smirking, though Dom had used a private channel, Thalia could still open a channel to Ivan and the audio sensors would pick up what Dom was saying. Dominic shot a _You're Fucked_ look at Ivan, who looked back with a _I KNOW! _She frowned suddenly "Wait, if Ivan's not interested in women and… Dominic! How could you!"

The men gaped "What?"

"And you don't want me to find out because you're afraid I'll blab to Annika, right? Damn straight I will! Cheating on your gorgeous wife with your MALE best friend! What were you two thinking?" Both men burst into hysterical laughter at that, as did the bridge crews of their ships. Everyone knew exactly what was up with Ivan, but they kept quiet, simply because it was far funnier to watch the soap opera play out in front of them "This isn't over, you two, we'll hammer this out later. My units are… good, in position or close enough, use one of your screens to watch me pound the Covenant into the ground. Remember, men, I'm telling Annika about this during our next leave." She shut the channel.

Dominic and Ivan laughed some more before sobering and watching Thalia's units roll into motion toward the Covenant camp. Why the Covenant even deployed ground forces after the hammering they got every time, neither knew, none of them cared. They were more interested in how, for such a sharp-minded, smart girl who liked practicing her flirting skills, Thalia could be so damned DENSE sometimes… especially when it came to a certain young Brackman.

* * *

><p>AN: For the record, a Scorpion Tank only can match a Wraith for game-play purposes. In reality, it is far inferior. A side note is that a Scorpion would be able to maybe match up to a Tier 1 Land Scout (I am referring to a Spirit Land Scout, with zero of the upgrade options that beef it up), and even then it is wholly inadequate in firepower. A Spirit's standard bolt, 1 shot is 2 damage points, a shot per 2 seconds, that's something on the order of 100 kilograms TNT equivalent yield per Light Laser bolt. That's enough to turn a Scorpion into metal fragments scattered over a few hundred square meters. Hence I am beefing Covenant ground vehicles, big time. As in it'll actually take more than one INL shot to kill one, an INL shot is now about 500 kg TNT equivalent yield… and about 5 damage points (I know, scale's a bit weird, but it works out with the differences of Laser and Electron weapons, especially against structural fields and shields).

* * *

><p><em>Troy System, April 22, 3871<em>

The first sign the Covenant had that something was horribly, HORRIBLY wrong was the sudden explosions that raked through their base like a hailstorm, packing hundreds of tons of TNT equivalent in each huge shell. They didn't even see the projectile trails or gun flashes thanks to the active camo and flash suppression systems/fields. Needless to say, the base was in absolute chaos… except for the parts that had actually been raked over, since there wasn't much left there except molten glass.

The next rakings of Fatboy shells reduced the area to absolute silence after the explosions and tinkling of glass fragments concluded. The ground shifted slightly as the Fatboy Experimental Mobile Factory crested a nearby hill and rolled over the remains of the Covenant camp multiple times, flattening everything that remained. It was completely unnoticed thanks to the grass harvesting and redistribution programs that hid its presence (unless you waited so long the grass that was dumped behind the Fatboy dried up to yellow hay).

The Covenant ships overhead were still trying to figure out just what happened when the Fatboy moved to an incline that allowed its guns to pitch up high enough… and let loose a torrent of shells, twelve per second, raking over the bottom hull of the Super Carrier (shields down to deploy the gravity lift). That destroyed some of the pulse lasers, but not much else, though it did start the Covenant near-panicking… That was bad, very, very bad, for the Coalition. Thalia's Yolona Oss was nowhere near ready as the Super Carrier smashed its way up through the atmosphere and the 54th Executioner Swarm, leaving a trail of broken warships in its wake as it made for orbit. Thalia continued construction on the Yolona Oss but threw more engineers around reclaiming the wrecks in the area to try to keep up the Mass flow, since she didn't have a Paragon and the Fleet Carriers' "Paragons" were busy powering their own construction efforts and weren't as powerful as the ground-side structures were, in her opinion, not worthy of the name, despite actually still being quite powerful compared to other economic options.

"Damn it, damn it!" She yelled as she vectored every single one of her attack craft in to strike away at the Super Carrier, blasting away more armour, turrets and such but failing to get in under the shields before they went back up. Shells pounded the ascending ship from above and below at the same time, but it held firm in its course, even as its screens, the escorts, failed under fire and either broke up in mid-air or went crashing back down to the ground. Not even flinging half-wrecked warships down from orbit fazed the Super carrier much as it barrelled onward toward space, just before it opened a slipspace portal and jumped away, the only survivor of the ships that had come to Troy. It wasn't unscathed though, having ejected three of its ten pods from sheer damage taken from a hit by a standard strategic missile bursting through the weakened shields in that area of the ship.

While the Coalition casualty count was still hovering at zero, an air of gloom still descended upon the fleet. They had failed to take down that Super Carrier, and so Thalia began reclaiming everything (after self-destructing it to make the process easier and faster) on the ground that she'd deployed. After re-injecting the mass into the planet, her ACU was recalled and they left the colony of Troy behind. The automated systems of the skyscrapers and the local defences still stood on alert, but no one lived there all, everyone had evacuated already…

* * *

><p><em>Covenant Holy City High Charity, April 27, 3871<em>

Orna Fulsamee was wondering if the _Truth and Reconciliation_ could make it through ONE battle intact or not. Still, having a couple pods, thankfully with no one in them, sheared off from one of those giant-ass mass accelerator shells was better than being a flaming wreck like most of the other ships in the Fleet of Righteous Vigilance were now. The enemy had taken the Covenant ships by surprise from behind and above their formation, with their ships inverted relative to the Covenant ships, focusing all available firepower directly on the Covenant ships, which were in what he'd learnt by experience to be the kill-zones of the Coalition warships. He'd tried calling them, but the snarling reptilian being, which had identified itself as Seraphim, had declared that anyone willing to glass a planet had to be executed for war crimes before pressing the attack. Thankfully, the Frigates managed to bring down some of the starfighters and draw the attention of others before they could massively bomb his fleet into oblivion, desperate times called for desperate measures, including use of slipspace apertures to swallow up some of the enemy starfighters.

Much to his horror, the enemy fleet used their own apertures to take the starfighters back into normal space, but still, it had bought a little time… The Fleet of Righteous Vigilance had managed to cut down fifty-one enemy vessels before all 173 ships perished, save his own, two Carriers, and a few others that managed to jump out. One of the carriers had died in-flight, losing core containment and making slipspace even more chaotic than it normally was as it exploded in-flight. Another two ships had been forced out of slipspace by the chaos of the explosion to wait by until the mess calmed down, their drives so damaged they couldn't keep course. Orna had already sent the coordinates for those ships to Slipspace tugs available in the fleet surrounding High Charity, and they were now en route. It was a miracle with the damage sustained to the "ass end of the ship" as he, Thel and Rtas used to call a ship's stern, that the _Truth_ had sustained from a flight of over a hundred of the bomber-type starfighters strafing it that it had not had its Slipspace Drive damaged, but Orna wasn't about to complain about such blessings. Still, that meant the ship was taking its sweet time getting to the docks of High Charity… AGAIN.

Orna took a moment to ponder the course of the war. Sure, they kept pushing the Coalition back, but they were taking horrendous losses. The Coalition's industrial capacity seemed to be able to stand toe-to-toe with the Covenant, the war was starting to mire down into a war of attrition, it was as if the enemy had limitless fleets and troops to throw at the Covenant, the opposite was not quite true. Sure, the Covenant held one-quarter of the galactic disk, and retrieved intel suggested the Coalition held significantly less, but their industrial capability was quite frightening nonetheless. Orna could only hope they were beginning to eat into reserve formations with the immense number of losses they were sustaining.

Oh, and there was also the matter of the humans with weird abilities. The Covenant had never encountered anything like it, and the Hierarchs had dismissed the claims as a result of battle stress, especially as the Covenant lost every single ground engagement. The human Marines as they called themselves were like demons. They would strike from invisibility; no one had managed to kill one yet since they could take absurd amounts of fire, and seemed to be able to teleport, fly or something else like it. It was total madness to engage them on the ground, their civilians were armoured and immensely difficult to kill, never mind those abilities some humans had. Regret had been gracious enough to forward reports of such humans to him since he was the first to witness such powers. He'd sent his analysis—none of the displays seen thus far came even close to matching the unarmoured but apparently more or less invincible female human he'd seen before.

Fulsamee would not know for a long time how both wrong and right he was. The Coalition only held about 15% of the Galactic Disk, but the industrial capacity… was a different matter. As for Liara, well, there was not only the power of being an Ardat-Yakshi without a single kill to her name, but also an ancient power behind that spirit, something few could even guess at a part of, let alone comprehend the entire scale of.

* * *

><p><em>Location: Unknown, Time: Unknown (but in the past)<em>

Thunder boomed overhead ominously as the figure ghosted through the grassy field. It was obviously feminine, a white and green dress matching her milky white skin and green hair, with curls, that still displayed her fringe and conclusively put her outside the realm of human possibility. Even if her other traits did not, they would have shown her to be non-human… She didn't touch the grass, merely moving through it, opting to feel the blades of grass brushing against her feet, clad in her white stockings as usual, as she hovered along, though her legs were still completely hidden by the ballroom gown she wore. She stopped in front of a monument and looked up at it, watching the six figures there stand in their poses, a mark of this place… This place, where it had all ended, and where the life she had now began. Tears threatened to enter her eyes, but a quick Calm Mind held them back as she began the finishing steps of her Rain Dance.

A drizzle started that rapidly escalated into a downpour. A small psychic shield kept the rain off her as she smiled bitterly, before moving around the monument toward the small formation of graves near it. She walked up to the first headstone, and then knelt on one knee in front of it, completely ignoring the rain that fell in sheets all around her as she extended her arm, wrapped in a long green glove, the same colour as her hair and the green parts of her dress. She drew it back before stripping off the glove, putting out her hand and setting her jaw as she traced over the inscription on the tombstone. Her arm was quickly drenched by the pouring rain as she bit her lip, finding Calm Mind no longer enough to hold back the tears that trickled down her cheeks and dripped off her chin. She forced her eyes open to look at the headstone's inscription, and took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Hello, John, I'm back." Her voice cracked a little. "I'm not sure if the vision of you in my mind is real or just part of my imagination, so I'm coming here to tell you something in person… I'm dying, John, I need to die. It's so that the future, our future, may yet have hope… I'm sorry. I know, you died so I could live, I hope you can understand… the image of you in my head said you did, but… I'm not sure." She wiped her eyes with the fabric that gloved her other hand before swallowing thickly and standing up, hovering off the ground again to the tombstone beside it, looking down at the empty grave that had been for her (they never found her body because there wasn't a body to find) before shaking her head sadly and moving around to the second row of headstones, going back down on a knee in the grass "Hey kids…" her eyes were beginning to run harder, and she let them run "Mommy's back… it's been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry I couldn't have come to visit more often… but I've secured the future for us, all of us, to be a big, happy family again." It was as if the floodgates had opened as she traced the names of her dead children on their respective tombstones, and she fell weakly to both knees as she buried her face in her hands and bawled her heart out.

Finally, the tears subsided "I'll see you in the next cycle…" She whispered to the two little graves before tearing her eyes away and moving to the last two graves, next to her children's. "James, Tali, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you never deserved to be dragged into this… even though it was your twin brother and me, James, you didn't have to die back then, and neither did you, Tali. I swear to you both that I have secured the future for us, all of us… I hope you two actually get the chance to have children in the next round of the Game." She whispered quietly, before turning back to the two little graves and shaking her head slowly, before she moved back to the first row, resting her hand on the stone that marked her dead lover's grave. "I'll see you and the kids again someday, John, I promise." She hoped she didn't break the promise the same way she did when John died… If she'd followed her kind's natural tendencies and had her kind's natural abilities to their full extent, he couldn't have died, at least, not without her sacrificing her own life to protect him first.

She wrenched her head back around from the stones, and looked up at the memorial for a long moment, before gliding away over the grass. The vegetation barely registered her passing as she used her powers again, breaking the clouds up. She glanced back as her Sunny Day ability took effect, and smiled ruefully as the sun shone down on the monument and the six graves next to it. She tucked a loose strand of her green hair back behind her fringe, the same fringe John had liked to stroke back when they were together, and the same fringe he liked in her dreams, and smiled. The light glittered off the monument as if it glowed, the light spreading further as the rain slowed and finally stopped, the clouds having dissipated. Before the receding shadows could reach her though, she had hovered higher into the air… and disappeared.

* * *

><p>AN: Anyone have an idea as to what that particular past life is all about? If you have a guess, put it in a review, and when the time comes, we shall see who is right… Mastermind, you don't count, I gave you FAR too many hints already (DON'T GIVE IT AWAY! If you want to say something, comment on how well or poorly the hints are going).


	7. The First Battle of Sanctuary

A/N: I appreciate the thought, but please no more Homeworld series requests, I've put in enough major space powers. Besides, the Reapers gotta get here SOMETIME! I may or may not eventually put in Universe At War though, though considering the galaxy map I put up on DeviantArt, I may need to assign the Hierarchy most of the galactic core to make them a significant power. Novus and the Masari, well, I'll find a way to fit them in, if I decide to do it at all.

Also, for anyone who thinks writing a fic about Halo is dumb when I haven't even finished playing Halo 1, take this: NEVER watched a single episode of BSG or nBSG, never even played Mass Effect (Own it, computer too shitty), though I've read Redemption. Hah! It's not as dumb as you think if you have the WIKI!

A brief explanation is included for how Thalia and Ivan interact. After all, it would get on your nerves if your best friend who's a genius at everything else is a total moron when it comes to acknowledging your existence.

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: The First Battle of Sanctuary<p>

_Ivan Brackman's head, CSC Apocalypse Now, 54__th__ Executioner Swarm, April 26, 3871_

Ivan Brackman walked onto a broad, grassy plain and began to speak to thin air, as if he could not control his own thoughts and actions. "You gotta wonder how, considering I'm the combined result of the ingenious and of course as we all know more eccentric than a straight line Doctor Brackman and Elite Commander Dostya, the sharpest strategic mind in the Cybran Nation, still ranking as such though the Elite Four are fairly close, that I can be so pathetic when it comes to something as simple as liking a girl, right?" _Wait, what? My biological mother, well, genetic donor, is the Elite Commander? I didn't know that…_

He shook his head and continued, gesturing as if his limbs couldn't stay still, and talking like he couldn't control his mouth, as if someone else was mind-controlling him "Anyway, what really GETS to me once in a while is how, even though Thalia Kael is so damned perceptive, knowledgeable, and overall brilliant at everything else…"

A voice spoke from thin air, sounding like Thalia's but a lot huskier, and asked "Like giving you a good time in your fantasies?"

Ivan looked around frantically, his body actually obeying the command for once "Gee, that was scary, don't think bad thoughts, Brackman, don't think bad thought… maybe the voice will go away after a while, damn it, why'd I ever let Dom convince me to install that voice modifier program?" He shook his head to clear it a bit, and then noted his mouth running away from him again "Anyway, she might be great at everything else… but whenever we start talking about me, well, saying that I exist, basically, she suddenly becomes dumb as a brick." He frowned, it wasn't typical of him to be so rude… but his mouth just kept going, it was good catharsis, he guessed. Then again, if Jaran ever got wind of this… "It's pretty depressing to know that your all-knowing best friend suddenly becomes denser than a black hole whenever things concern your existence." He snorted "If she was Cybran I'd suspect a blocking program with illegal control implants was involved. Either she's pretending I don't exist, or whenever it comes to my existence, she really is as dumb as a sack of bricks."

"Who's dumb as a sack of bricks?" The voice had returned, but this time it was more menacing, dangerous, the tough soldier Ivan knew all the way from cadet school. A shadow suddenly materialized over him as an Aluminar T2 Air Transport, still in use because it had the best AA weapons, dropped Passive Camo over his head, he looked up, not even thinking about running, since he knew it could outrun him in an instant if it wanted. What was anchored to the bottom made his blood run cold. Well over three thousand tons of fully upgraded Brick Armoured Assault Bot, a single unit, took up the first four transport clamps of the T-shaped, curvy transport.

"Thalia, don't do this…" He sounded like he was whining, almost, he didn't do whining.

The voice, her voice, laughed mirthlessly "Heh, well, if you wanted a sack of bricks so bad, then I'll give you a brick… couldn't find a sack big enough to hold them, sorry about that." the clamps disengaged and the Armoured Assault Bot began to fall. His feet didn't move, already resigned to an instant death by liquefaction if not by being crushed. Without seismic dampeners, the impact would hit the ground hard enough to liquefy him with the weight redistribution program. If it had seismic dampeners, the he would simply be crushed to a smear under the thing's mass.

That didn't stop Ivan Brackman from opening his mouth and shouting the classic "NOOO—!" before the Bot splattered him across the ground.

As his consciousness dissolved, a voice seemed to almost echo in his ears, it sounded like his father… "You two are not compatible, Ivan, you know that."

* * *

><p><em>CSC Apocalypse Now, 54<em>_th__ Executioner Swarm, April 26, 3871_

Since common procedure was to not have sound dampeners on, Thalia Kael, just passing by on her way back to her room to grab something before she went back to the bridge, passed by at just the right time to hear Ivan's ""!"

Needless to say, a flash of her clearance allowed her to break into her best friend's suite with he Phasic Pistol already out and her eyes confirming no hostile contacts, well, no contacts other than her best friend, on her HUD. "Ivan? Ivan!" She waved her hand and tapped the medical scan shortcut setting inside the glove. "Well, you're alright, more or less."

"Thalia?" The young man was awake now, breathing hard and looking up at her, before his eyes widened in fear and he threw the sheets back, clamouring off the bed in only his boxers and grabbing is armour's chest plate and holding it in front of himself like a shield. "No, get away from me!"

She rolled her eyes "I'm not going to hurt you, Ivan, unless you've forgotten who I am, remember, Thalia, your best friend since before cadet school?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, anyways, uh…" He scratched his head with his free hand, dropping the improvised shield onto his rack with a clang before rummaging around for clothes.

Thalia rolled her eyes before sitting on the sofa, watching in utter boredom as Ivan looked for clothes in his closet, his ass completely stuck up in the air, though not in her direction per se. She yawned before starting, talking to Ivan's side "Anyways, Ivan, we have a brand new op to do, we're already headed there, Asteroid K7-49, Covenant designation, serves as a shipyard. Orders are to land ACU-style and pound the thirty plasma reactors on the planet that function in smelting for the Covenant to scrap with land units. Try to leave as many survivors as possible, and no passive or active stealth, shock and awe, Dostya says we're trying to leak information to scare the shit out of the Covenant without losing an IC or two in the process."

Neither of them noted the fact that if it was anyone else, Thalia would be making mental notes for talking about later on. For example, she'd had more than one conversation with Annika about the pros and cons of Dominic's ass. Other frequent victims included almost anyone who worked at the CSC, but not her vaguely asexual best friend. When Annika had mentioned Ivan in the past, her usual response was to blink and state honestly that she'd never considered it and wasn't planning to. There wasn't a point in debating the pros and cons of her best friend if he was more or less asexual, right? Thalia had never known quite when she'd begun to consider Ivan either asexual or gay, but there it was.

"So, uh, when's the op beginning?" Ivan asked, pulling some clothes on.

Thalia was examining the unit models he had in his room, and looked up from her contemplation of a fifteen-centimetre-tall Loyalist Siege Assault Bot. "It begins on April 28th, gives us time to make a covert approach and set down a full-scale base, a few Yolona Oss shots should be able to blast the asteroid apart… if it comes to that."

"Are we en route?" Ivan was all business now, despite his depressed dream about the state of stupidity his best friend sometimes displayed.

She nodded curtly "Yes, we're sitting outside the system. I was just going back to my rooms for something when I heard you scream. Is everything alright?"

He shrugged as he clasped his armour on and it activated, then looked up with a smirk many women would probably have fawned over "It is now, so, who's doing ACU duty this time?"

* * *

><p><em>3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, April 26, 3871_

Thel Lodamee was free to wander about, after they'd given him a final check-up and Hannah Shepard as she called herself finally found time to come around, and tie up their agreement. "Of course, there are still some areas where you are not permitted to go, for obvious reasons." She had said as she led him out of the med bay.

He'd grinned, spreading his mandibles "I understand, military secrets, right?"

They stopped by another door near the med bay "Yep, so, these are your quarters, Jenkins will be accompanying you around the ship. I might hold true to my promise of not harming you, but some of my crew might not be as polite. You do not want to get pranked, believe me." She'd left him with Jenkins after that.

"So Lodamee, you're allowed to visit the hangar bays, the mess hall, the bridge, the games rooms, and basically everything other than shipboard weapons, shields, power cores, and the Gate Room." Jenkins rattled off "Since I'm basically assigned to be your tour guide these days, where do you want to go?"

Thel shrugged "Hangar bays maybe?"

"Let's go then…" That had led them to their current situation, Thel bent over, coughing, while Jenkins still had a stupid grin on his face "Told you opening your mouth too wide was inviting something to fall in, even if it was only dust this time."

"Well I was surprised at the SIZE of these things, alright?" Thel growled snappishly, still looking at the sixteen levels of the racks, twenty craft per rack, of this hangar bay, one of the two on the ship. "I mean, look at them!" He gestured broadly.

Jenkins kept smirking "Yeah, it does tend to be a bit overwhelming at first, the size of our war machines, but you'll get used to it, now, I'm hungry, you?"

"Lead the way."

* * *

><p><em>Planetoid K7-49, April 28, 3871<em>

"Why'd it have to be you?" Thalia groused as she watched the icon of her best friend's ACU move among the buildings and units of his main base. "I wanted to do this, make up for my last failure…" She murmured to herself, then shrugged. "Oh well, Ivan can handle it just fine…"

Her friend was indeed handling it just fine, Ahwassa Experimental Bombers and Sinntha T3 Strategic Bombers already in position to launch strikes as soon as the start time for the op hit. He also had a Yolona Oss online and loaded with two missiles, the missiles were normally capable of planet-satellite strikes, and for this job, shooting the asteroid shipyard that orbited the planetoid to dust, it would be more than adequate even without FTL capability.

The newest model of Yolona Oss sacrificed the third missile slot for a shield and much greater structural fields. It had been found that the launchers were simply too fragile before, too easy for a surgical Strategic Bomber strike, flying low to bypass shields as much as possible, to eliminate. Hence it was installed with a shield and better fields to help survivability. It could still hold one FTL-fitted missile, no problem, hence all was good.

This installation on the planetoid created metallurgical components for the Covenant shipyard in orbit; hence it had to be destroyed. Much to the relief of everyone, it also meant the Covenant did not have nanolathing capability. Hence, if it came down to a war of attrition, and especially as the Covenant had already bypassed nearly a quarter of Cybran Space by now, the Coalition could strike back out of absolutely nowhere and ACU blitz them with their undetected, bypassed colonies and thus Gate Network links.

The instant the mission start clocked ticked to zero, the units on the ground activated, lifting off silently and launching into motion, shock dampeners preventing the absurdly loud sonic booms that would have resulted otherwise from alerting anyone. That was not to say it would have reached the reactors before the bombs did, but it could have warned someone who could have sent the message down the line and maybe brought up shields over the targets.

The thirty reactors went up in titanic explosions almost as one, being destroyed so fast by the powerful bombs they didn't have time to overload and blow up before being annihilated. The Covenant base was thrown into absolute chaos as the two Yolona Oss missiles launched and tore up through the limited atmosphere toward the orbiting asteroid. The Sinnthas came around for the second pass much faster than their larger cousins and were pulling their third run on the levelled base with their Zhanasee Strategic Bombs when the Ahwassas dumped their second hail of Othe Tactical Bombs on the installation. All the bombers rolled out toward space immediately after that, headed for the target area of the Yolona Oss missiles with an attack-move order. The flash of the detonations washed back over them, lighting up their dark blue plating for a moment before they went dark again, splitting up the formation to bomb the few Covenant ships far enough from the debris cloud to not get sheared to desk-sized parts.

The Yolona Oss hits had cracked the asteroid to shotgun pellets and vaporized a significant amount of its mass, including several docked ships, rending others apart to act as fragmentation devices to impale even more ships. Those ships came under fire from the Sinnthas the 54th Executioner Swarm had deployed from its carriers to the surface and the Ahwassas, fabricated on-planet, at the same time, as the bombers were equal in speed.

The "battle" was over in mere moments after that. The Sinnthas returned to their carriers and the Ahwassas managed to secure themselves to the outsides like oversized remoras. Moments later, a final hail of Sonance and Mavor fire scrapped all evidence that they had ever been here. All that was left was an expanding debris cloud.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Bunker Hill, 4<em>_th__ Executioner Swarm, High Orbit over Sanctuary, April 28, 3871_

The 4th Executioner Swarm, and Seth-Thauum, Supreme Seraphim Commander, had been recalled to Sanctuary to investigate sightings of Covenant ships inside Seraphim space. Hell, one ship had even gotten to Sanctuary's system before being annihilated. That was unacceptable. Seth cracked a grin as he looked out at the warships of the Sanctuary Defence Fleet, the only ones known to employ Quarnon Cannons, Olaris AA Artillery cannons, and Laanse Tactical Missiles. It was too bad Seraphim tech hadn't been quite fully compatible with the rest of the Coalition until relatively recently, hence the Sanctuary Defence Fleet was the only one to field those weapons, not counting the Collectors' secondary ship guns.

The Covenant would soon be back, predictably, they came with a large fleet, over six hundred ships this time, forming a towering battle formation opposite the 4th Executioner Swarm and Sanctuary Defence Fleet, but not firing. "Hold fire, everyone, something's not right about this." Seth growled, though the Orbital Strategic Missile Stations, all under active stealth and active camo had already turned, loading their missile launchers. They STILL hadn't built a cloaking device for them, though they adapted active camo to work recently, and they got passive camo right a couple years ago. "Hail the lead ship, that Super Carrier!" He barked.

Something that reminded Seth of a turkey from Earth with its long, fleshy neck and ugly face appeared on the transmission screen "Honourable Seraphim! I, the High Prophet of Regret, would like to open relations between the Seraphim Republic and the Covenant!"

"Open relations you say?" Seth asked, leaning forward slightly, narrowing his eyes and clicking his mandibles "What sort of relations?" He hissed.

Regret stated simply "An agreement to help us exterminate the filthy humans in return for a place in our noble Covenant. Your species would be able to walk the Path with us, and find redemption for the sin of allying with the unworthy humans."

Many light-years away, Truth started banging his forehead on the wall, Regret had always been a bit too blunt for his own good, sure, it got a lot more stuff done sometimes, but here… It was good that Regret wasn't actually on that Super Carrier he was bouncing the signal through.

Seth snorted "You need some lessons in diplomacy, one sec, let me show you something…" He checked the settings and found one station with three FTL-capable warheads filling up its launch tubes. "Embrace the Way!" He growled as he smashed his fist down on the stylized Big Red Button, after flipping up the security cover, launching his missiles in sync.

Three flashes announced the jumps shortly after the missiles left the launchers, and three jump points opened up ahead of the Super Carrier, which tried to move out of the way before the missiles exited it on final flight section tracking. Direct detonation/jumping was too unpredictable, hence even FTL-capable missiles could be taken out by SMDs. Sadly, the plasma projectors didn't hit the missiles in time before they detonated.

The Super Carrier was consumed in a trio of titanic blasts that merged together, scrapping the ship completely. The rest of the Covenant ships began to manoeuvre away as pieces of wreckage from shattered Frigates that had been meant to screen the Super Carrier (and said ship's stern) smashed into their shields. The thirty more missiles, the non-FTL capable ones, from the five other Orbital Strategic Missile Stations around Sanctuary, which sped toward the Covenant fleet brought a massive deluge of Plasma Projector fire. With the extra reaction time, the two hundred or so Covenant ships managed to, with some difficulty, swat all the missiles out of space before they went off, but that only meant they were distracted from the armada of various aircrafts which followed the missiles. Asylums on boosters advanced in a shield-wall that shrugged off many shots from plasma torpedoes before popping, unleashing the swarms of Iazynes, Coronas, Wasps and Geminis to fly ahead. The air-superiority fighters opened up on the Covenant Seraphs with their Losaare AA Autocannons, Displacement Cannons, Ginsu Pulse Beams and Nanite Missiles as one, followed by the slightly slower Revenants, Ambassadors, Shockers and Sinnthas which lunged toward the covenant capital ships, their rear-mounted AA weapons, where applicable, twinkling away at the Seraphs. Ahwassas flew among the lower-tier Strategic Bombers with Athanahs tacked to them, using the hard-point options modern Experimentals had, and smashed away at the Covenant's capital ships and Seraphs alike. The Restorers, Whailers, and Broadswords brought up the rear, tearing away at the Covenant's Frigates and Light Cruisers with their gunship weapons.

"Supreme Commander! What's happening out there?" President Ratheen demanded from a screen. "What did they do?"

"They tried to get us to sell out our allies, I'm uploading the videos now!" Seth barked back, hitting the relevant buttons while micromanaging an Ahwassa so a Covenant ship would strike another with its powerful plasma projectors. "We've just found out their Super Carriers aren't that tough after all, three Yolona Oss blasts will scrap one. All Quarnon-equipped vessels focus on Battleships, 4th E-Swarm Clutches one and two take it in close between those Assault Carriers!" He highlighted the four Assault Carriers hovering close to one another. "Pound them with Ravagers and Zealots, employ maximum firepower!"

"Quarnon Cannons on all Sanctuary Defence Fleets firing on lead Battleships, direct hits, sir." One of his officers, a human, called. "A couple more volleys and it'll go down."

Seth acknowledged the man's report before turning back to the video screen showing his President, who'd finished skimming the transmission exchange. "Redemption? Hah! The Only redemption we need find was for not overthrowing the Imperium completely!" Ratheen growled "Chase them from our skies, Supreme Commander."

Seth nodded brusquely "Aye, sir." Ratheen smirked and nodded back before he closed the channel "Clutches One and Two, pull back, we've done enough damage for now! Those unable to pull back jettison pods and dock them to those that can, ram the enemy!"

Needless to say, all four Assault Carriers ended up ejecting multiple bulbous sections in response to the sheer damage caused by ramming as the other Coalition warships pulled back by FTL and the Covenant found their plasma projectors firing on friendly targets. They immediately peeled off the attacks, but the damage was done, one of the five-kilometre warships was close to drifting, only secondary thrusters online…

The Seraphs of the fleet had taken a far heavier beating though, being reduced to almost nothing in the first few seconds of the massively lop-sided exchange of starfighters. That was in both craft and numbers, though the two lopsided directions ran opposite to one another. The Coalition units and the units of the Sanctuary Defence Fleet held overwhelming superiority in quality in all respects, but the Covenant had quantity. As was well known, Quality tends to beat Quantity most of the time. That was not happening right now though, and so Seth had to pull back closer to Sanctuary orbit, allowing the Heavy, Medium, Light and even Satellite Orbital Defences to open up with a massive deluge of destructive power and of course the ever-important Zealot Space Interception Missiles that helped the starfighters thin out the enemy numbers quickly and efficiently, all the while without the Covenant even seeing or detecting what was hitting them. It also allowed the main body of the Sanctuary defence Fleet, some 300 capital ships, to join their two hundred compatriots in battle and tip the numbers, for now

More ships began arriving on the Covenant side, determined to, under the leadership of Regret (using his Assault Carrier instead, to avoid being targeted too easily or soon), glass this planet to show the humans' allies, all of them, what allying with the humans meant. At the same time, Seth sent out a call for the other Executioner Swarms in the area to join the battle, and an epic clash of titans began in high orbit over Sanctuary, the Seraphim Republic capital planet, even as civilians evacuated it via Quantum Gate…

* * *

><p><em>CSC Apocalypse Now, 54<em>_th__ Executioner Swarm, Atlas Moons, April 28, 3871_

While the struggle for Sanctuary was ongoing, the Covenant were pushing forward along the whole border, though said border was by now in the middle of Cybran Space, with many colonies undetected and bypassed. Just because they were engaged in a battle for a capital planet didn't mean they took any of their other assault forces from elsewhere. For the last two and a half days Ivan Brackman, Thalia Kael and Dominic Maddox had taken turns coordinating the 54th Executioner Swarm against the Covenant presence in the area, which was just too much for them to handle, and the Quantum Hurricane that had begun to move into the area made gating out the colonists of the Moons difficult at best, taking minutes to send off each truck-load, even with the more attuned Seraphim Quantum Gate buildings. Sure, the others were much faster, but they weren't as stable and in a Quantum Hurricane would take longer to establish a link for each truck than the Seraphim ones.

Things were nearing the end though, the battle was soon to tip with the Strategic Bombers the trio had been hoarding and the Yolona Oss silos they'd set up on the surface of the Moons. The first surprise to be sprung was a Yolona Oss directly to the nose of a fully-shielded Assault Carrier, which shattered the ship and vaporized the front half entirely. The second was the cloud of Revenants rising undetected from the asteroid ring that surrounded Atlas, the gas giant, shoving several thousand Proton Bombs up the Covenant fleet's ass within the span of a few seconds before continuing on their path over the formation to dump more bombs up the rears of the second-from-last line of ships, well, last in some places, as a number of Cruisers and Destroyers had gone dead already.

Yolona Oss missiles, the three remaining ones, smashed into the Covenant ships in the ring without warning before they rose from the ring to strike at the source f the missiles… just before the 54th Executioner Swarm's remaining warships surprised them from beneath them, cracking a few more Covenant ships open even while the Revenants kept on killing ship after ship despite their slowly dwindling numbers. Shocker Strategic Bombers and mobile Asylum Shield Generators joined the fray, since thanks to ASF work the Covenant ships were out of Seraphs already, and began to wrench the numbers to favour the Coalition. It was slow going though, and both sides lost ships, but the differences in casualty counts were staggering, though the Covenant didn't know it…

* * *

><p><em>CSC Bunker Hill, High Orbit over Sanctuary, April 28, 3871<em>

The Covenant ships were slowly being cut to pieces while the seven Executioner Swarms and the Sanctuary Defence Fleet ground themselves to scrap. Both sides were taking horrific losses of ships, Strategic Missiles were launched every minute from the Coalition line, but they weren't quite enough to stem to Covenant tide. Mavor barrels and Sonance guns were spewing forth pounding destruction in volleys while the Oblivion Cannons, Ravager Plasma Chainguns, Quarnon Cannons, Loa Tactical Missiles, Ultrachromatic Beam Generators (aka Phasers), Plasma Beam Cannons, Plasma Accelerators, Gauss Cannons, Heavy Microwave Lasers and other weapons streamed toward the Covenant. Plasma Torpedoes, Plasma Projectors and Pulse Lasers lashed straight back, apparently, the Covenant had adapted their weapons to be able to fire through narrow opening sin their shields, unlike before. The two fleets, each well over twelve hundred assorted ships to begin with, were now whittled down to three hundred fifty for the Covenant and four hundred for the defenders, thanks to the Orbital Defence Stations.

The scale of battle was slowly tipping in Seth-Thauum's favour now, most of the Covenant escorts were gone, though the main battle line still remained mostly intact, bombarded by Yolona Oss fire every once in a while, about two out of every eighteen-missile volley making it through, shattering two or more Covenant ships of the line in each blow. The Coalition line was by now nearly devoid of the screening Battle Cruisers and Escort Carriers, having expended them to shield the Battleships and Fleet Carriers, the latter of which were amassing Strategic Bombers at an astounding rate. The Sanctuary Defence Fleet was also low on screens, leaving their own heavier ships, ranging from one to three kilometres, to fight on. Seth watched as his Strategic Bomber count rose above the line he'd set for himself, and nodded approvingly. The _Bunker Hill_ shook from a Plasma Projector shot to the structural fields, just before it dodged behind one of the wrecks in orbit, a Heavy Orbital Defence Station, to regenerate some of the shield coverage. Seth sent the deploy command to the Carriers of the combined fleets, and as one all the ships spewed forth a towering cloud of Sinnthas, Shockers, Revenants, and Ambassadors while the assorted Aerospace Superiority Fighters rushed headlong toward the Covenant fleet.

They seemed to be in shock at the huge numbers of bombers the Coalition units had just disgorged, seeing as how their plasma fire slackened for just a moment before picking up again. They tried to swat away at the suicidal fighters that bore down on them and wiped every remaining Covenant starfighter out of existence, but they failed, since they simply didn't mount enough anti-fighter weaponry, unlike Coalition warships. The ASFs were doubling back just as the tide of well over ten thousand Strategic Bombers hit the front end of the Covenant formation in a collective bombing run on a single Assault Carrier which buckled and nearly disintegrated under the thundering hail of bombs. Then the lethal stream of bombers, so thick it seemed like a carpet weaving through space, swung away as a collective and targeted the next Covenant Capital Ship.

The Covenant battle line nearly snapped as the river of bombers took out one ship every few slots in the line, their ammunition regeneration the only thing preventing them from engulfing the line in a sea of fire. Astoundingly, impossibly, MORE Covenant ships jumped in, and their weapons plus the original group's took out hundreds of the bombers as they sped along the line.

Seth knew this would be the tipping point, and summoned his last available reinforcements, the last reserves close enough to the front lines to make a difference (Quantum Jumping took a lot longer to charge with the recent unstable Quantum Weather than before, and long-distance jumps took even longer) and which were no longer engaged with the Covenant's latest all-out attack: Two more Executioner Swarms, each short a few ships, appeared on the battlefield in flashes of light. They had fought off their Covenant attacks and had charged up their jump drives as fast as they could, hence they were on-call now. He'd need them soon.

"YOs, prioritize on Assault Carriers! One Missile Each!" He barked, entering the commands "Bombers on Battleships, collective bombing runs, waypoint mode!" He looked up, having entered all the commands he needed for now and announced them to the other ships in the fleet "All ships FORWARD! CHARGE THE COVENANT LINE!" the Supreme Seraphim Commander bellowed.

The Coalition line lumbered into motion at that command. There were no stragglers, since Coalition ships, if their engines were so damaged to not be able to be used properly, despite routing mass and energy from other parts, tended to be destroyed ships. The Covenant kept up their pressure with their plasma projectors while swatting away at the bombers that swarmed them with their pulse laser turrets and plasma torpedoes. More than one Fleet Carrier, running on autopilot once they'd been damaged too severely, went up in devastating blasts, and more than a few damaged ships fell victim to the meltdowns, but thankfully no chain reactions occurred. The two battle lines clashed with an almighty display of fire and fury as all warships opened up with even their smallest point defences on one another, blasting away at the enemy in a hideous yet beautiful display of stunning amounts of energy. Bombers and Fighters gave the fight their all, though they seemed almost insignificant beside the looming titans slugging it out all around them. Covenant ships began dying in large numbers as the stings of the starfighters and the hammer-blows of the capital ships overcame their shields and armour before gutting them, tearing them apart. Even long after a ship died, others would occasionally fire on it, just to make sure. Escape pods from Covenant ships were destroyed ruthlessly after they attempted to board the nearest Coalition ship upon launch—and failed on every attempt—proving mercy a concept too kind for this battle.

Coalition escape "pods" enjoyed a different treatment, fleeing to the orbital defences, mostly unharmed, simply due to their stealth systems and Active Camo. Still, every once in a while one would get caught in a stray plasma projector shot and get vaporized, but that usually meant such a small crew loss it was insignificant compared to the size of the Coalition war machine. Seth knew it wasn't good to think that way and that manpower when wasted like that ran out faster than one would expect, but it was the truth. He just hoped the Covenant was running out of first-line fleets and would begin drawing on their reserves soon, or this would be a tedious war. Besides, with the power of their ships, the Covenant could make a real dent in the Reapers if the Coalition could end this war quickly without destroying too many of the Covenant's ships.

While the two fleets were embroiled in glorified knife-fighting at effectively zero range, several ships exited high warp a short distance away. The first 3860 Heavy Battleships (Heavy Battleships by the 3860 classification scheme) and Super-Battleships had arrived on the scene. They immediately loosed all weapons on the Covenant ships, bombarding them with crushing firepower from long range as they came back into normal space.

The hail of destruction from the newly-arrived, re-configured 3rd Executioner Swarm tipped the scales as Covenant Battleships and Carriers began breaking up under concentrated fire, silencing their plasma projectors and allowing the remaining ships that had defended Sanctuary to achieve breakthrough and begin hammering the Covenant fleet in earnest, reorganizing and ganging up on the larger warships they were assaulting. The Covenant did the smart thing as their battle formation finally broke up—they ran.

Once they'd cleaned up all the remaining Covenant ships that had been too damaged to go to slipspace, Seth announced with a growl "Sanctuary Space is clear, the First Battle of Sanctuary is hereby concluded on April 28, 3871. The Seraphim Republic is safe… for now." He finished that log before opening a channel to the new, heavier capital ships that had just arrived. "Hannah, how's the new fleet doing?"

"The ships are really damned nice." Hannah replied from the screen "The _Boneguard_ is the flagship of my Executioner Command Group now."

Seth raised a brow "ECG? Really?"

Hannah rolled her eyes "Yeah, I know, but one ECG of four Super-Battleships and eight Heavy Battleships will be appended to each Executioner Swarm from this day onward, they've just been brought into commission and I'm bringing the first few of the big boats right to Sanctuary to help out."

Seth realized he'd missed something "Thanks for the help."

Hannah smirked "Meh, don't mention it. The Covenant is in full retreat along the entire border, we've driven them back for now, but we haven't been able to get much new intel regarding them, we need a way to end this war quickly before we end up destroying too many of their ships, they'll be a hell of a lot better than the Council will be against the Reapers."

Seth bobbed his head "Agreed, we only won because of all the orbital defences here. Speaking of which, we're going to need to beef up the Core Worlds' defences, deploy more Missile Stations and Heavy Defence Stations."

Hannah nodded back "Alright, the data's already uploaded to the Net. It's being considered even as we speak. We've just destroyed a Covenant deuterium/tritium refinery and tripled the length of their supply line. The attacks should slow down enough for us to reconfigure our fleets before they can come back at us."

Seth finally cracked a smile, the Seraphim smile, which meant lifting the mandible hinges to smile almost like a human smile in the curved line it formed "Thank the Way." He grew more serious "How's the Shepard Protocol going?"

"We've figured out the Covenant's northern border, they won't be in contact with the Council anytime soon, and we've turned back all explorers in the area." Yeah, by destruction "We've also found all the Mass Relays in Covenant Space, and there aren't many, they're all still cold and under lockdown, plant a few Twilights near them and they won't ever get noticed until we point them out. The council's policy of not opening new Primary Relays really helped separating them."

Seth smirked "Excellent, when do I get my own ECG?"

* * *

><p>SHIP STATS:<p>

3860 Heavy Battleship (3872 Classification not ascertained yet)

1200m x 500m x 200m L x W x H

180 external anchorage clamps, for aircraft, 180 T1, 90 T2 or 60 T3

ARMAMENT:

5 Heavy Microwave Laser (HML)

2 Phason Laser

2 Mavor (dual-link forward)

1 Scathis (centerline)

4 Plasma Accelerators

12 Heavy Oblivion Cannon

10 Loa Tactical Missile Racks (12 each)

30 Quarnon Cannons

50 Ultrachromatic Beam Generators (aka Phasers)

70 Ravager Plasma Chainguns

50 Zealot SIM Launchers

30 Electron Flak Turrets (same as Burst Master, quad-barrel)

40 Zapper TMDs

20 Will-O-The-Wisp TMDs

4 SMD Silos

* * *

><p>3860 Super Battleship (3872 Classification not ascertained yet)<p>

1200m x 500m x 300m L x W x H

Air Staging Capability

180 external anchorage clamps, for aircraft, 180 T1, 90 T2 or 60 T3

ARMAMENT:

7 HML

16 Triple Gauss Cannon

2 Mavor (dual-link forward)

2 Scathis (bow)

4 Plasma Accelerators

4 Sonance Artillery (greater traverse-ability than Mavors)

2 Heavy Oblivion Cannon

30 Quarnon Cannons

30 Medium Oblivion Cannon

20 Loa Tactical Missile Racks (12 each)

40 Ultrachromatic Beam Generators (aka Phasers)

50 Ravager Plasma Chainguns

70 Zealot SIM Launchers

60 Electron Flak Turrets (same as Burst Master, quad-barrel)

40 Zapper TMDs

20 Will-O-The-Wisp TMDs

4 SMD Silos

* * *

><p>AN: Impressive, isn't it? Now Coalition warships can actually stack up one-to-one against Covenant CCS BCs, other than Fleet Carriers, which can swarm said BCs for a win. Note how the Coalition always lost about twice as many ships (and about one ten thousandth the number of lives) in every engagement other than with the defence platforms over Sanctuary supporting? Now, things will be more even than before, especially as the Coalition is upping their arsenal in preparation for fighting the Reapers, not the Covenant specifically.

Look forward to the Last Stand of the Boneguard (AOE 3 Reference) in two chapters. Yes, it's the counterpart to Admiral Cole's Last Stand.

My updating is slow because real life's getting in the way, sorry. REVIEW!


	8. Civilians, Marines, and Glass

A/N: Think nothing of the cameo, I'm never brining Star Trek in, other than to humorously explain events that shouldn't happen with Coalition tech. Let's start with a brief codex to explain why I'm not letting the Coalition totally stomp the Covenant into the ground. Besides, the war needs to be at least somewhat risky and mad!

I don't really want to bridge separate universes, because, well, I have zilch knowledge of Homeworld and I feel the Wiki won't be as comprehensive as the ME or Halo ones are. The flashbacks to their past lives are not the result of a psychic storm or anything like that, but something far more sinister… an ancient Game that was rigged from the start to bring nothing but despair, to offer hope and tear it away mercilessly, and basically to torture them. They've been here many times, as many, often different, species, but never once have they gone through life content and happily together, not once… it remains to be seen if this time will be another "horribly ever after".

As for how long Heavy and Super Battleships take to build, around a day each, that's how long. Ship Gantry Paragons may be called such but to reduce the blast capability and increase durability, they've been nerfed a bit, despite still being great, they aren't as great as the ground-side ones.

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: Civilians, Marines, and Glass<p>

COALITION CODEX ENTRY: THE YOLONA OSS TREATY

Shortly after the formation of the Coalition of Species, in the year 3850, after the destruction of the Order of the Illuminate and the last of the Seraphim Imperium forces marauding around human and Separatist space, it was agreed that some sort of control was needed on the most powerful strategic weapons. In this case, since treaties had already been signed against Rift induction capable weapons (any weapon with sufficient yield to glass a planet in a single shot was included just in case), what was left was, obviously, the ever-improving Yolona Oss Experimental Strategic Missile [Launcher].

Since the days of the Seraphim War, in which all sides used 200-Gigaton warheads for safety purposes, the Yolona Oss has been safely cranked up to 500 Gigatons. Still a long shot from the 2-Teraton capability the Imperium claimed the design capable of delivering if desired, the Yolona Oss nonetheless presented a major risk to peace within the then-known Galaxy. This is especially true of the fact that it can fire at very high frequency and the missiles are armoured enough to overwhelm a single SMD, though three will be able to hold it off with the latest SMD upgrade options (said upgrades are hideously expensive, but well worth it). Note that mobile SMDs will not stand much of a chance as their missiles are assembled far slower and can only store one anti-nuke at a time, whereas a single Yolona Oss Missile takes two anti-missiles to shoot down.

Hence, the treaty was drawn up, it can be summarized quite simply:

Yolona Oss Launchers are not to be mounted on starships capable of long-range independent FTL but may be mounted on orbital defence platforms. Even then, deployment of the stored missiles must be authorized by a member of the Elite Four Commanders or the Supreme Commander/Avatar of War/Elite Commander of a faction before they can be fired at any target. Any lower-ranked officer, though they must be at least a General or Admiral, must submit their report to at least three of the aforementioned Commanders should they deploy any of the missiles without direct authorization, and will undergo court-martial if it is deemed necessary by said Commanders.

This is the reason why no ship designs so far have included Strategic Missile Launchers, since Mavors do better at bombardment, at least, pin-point bombardment anyways, and Loa Racks can rain down a hail of destruction that is more continuous than an SML. Incorporating any SML other than a YO is too much trouble for too little return, since none of the others are armoured enough to take an anti-nuke and keep flying, nor so durable as to be able to take Covenant Plasma Projector fire. Of course, YO missiles can only take one of each safely, but that's at least something… and the damage potential is much better anyways. The only way for Strategic Missiles to work well in space warfare between ships is to use the FTL capable ones or be at fairly close range (or in an SMD blind spot), hence it was judged too much trouble. After all, everyone had some form of SMD available… right?

SEE ALSO: "EXPERIMENTAL STRATEGIC MISSILE LAUNCHER: YOLONA OSS", "STRATEGIC MISSILES", "ORBITAL DEFENCES", ETC.

-END OF CODEX ENTRY-

* * *

><p><em>Citadel, April 30, 3871<em>

"All our scouts and prowlers have been forcibly evicted from Coalition space, many by towing." Armin stated quickly in the private meeting of himself, Tevos and Velarn. They had to keep this out of Anderson's considerable reach (as most Citadel Races wanted to be on the Coalition's good side after the Turian War and even more so after the giving of a Council seat to the Coalition, without needing them to obey Council laws) for now… "But extreme range listening stations have picked up large fleet movements as well as heightened activity form the few Gantries our probes have sighted so far."

"That's a worrying development, any idea why?" Tevos asked, frowning.

Armin shook his head "No, our agents have reported nothing. Security's tightened up in the Coalition, they aren't even releasing info to the Independent Colonies, and the ICs are getting nervous about the intel we've been getting and forwarding to them."

Velarn had a huge frown "Dangerous, dangerous indeed, where have these fleets been headed?"

Armin shrugged "We don't know yet, but they seem to be just disappearing, like they're being mustered, or the Coalition is fighting a war…"

Tevos laced her fingers together "Any war that requires large fleet movements by the Coalition will be bad news. Velarn, how are the upgrade plans going?"

"Well, we've fitted the Hierarchy fleet with the latest technology, the Geth attack on the Citadel, which the Coalition keeps insisting to be a Reaper, really gave us the incentive to upgrade our ships to the latest standards." The Turian shrugged "We're at full strength and completely ready, with the best available technology. We can at least hold the line for a while if something crops up."

Tevos nodded "Good, the Asari fleet has been upgraded as well with plating schematics we've managed to come up with." They were decoded from ancient archives, but the others didn't need to know that "We've finished the reconstruction of the Ascension to the original plan's standards."

"What original plan?" Velarn asked.

"The Ascension was a sort of museum ship, didn't you know that?" Tevos said lightly, prompting Velarn's mandibles to spread wide in shock.

"Right, uh, I forgot… True, I did know that, so it's up to the original design specs now?"

Tevos smirked and nodded "Yep, though it's still five-armed instead of four, unlike the original design specs we wanted." (A/N: My Ascension has the four arms, but branching off a central hull, and that big blue mouth thing is the engines, with another, larger arm sticking out the front being the main hull.) "It's up to the full size we'd wanted, and full power too, we can expect to punch through a Coalition Battleship with one volley of the main mass accelerators, or if the Geth pull something like Sovereign out of their asses again, we'll be able to stand off against and destroy it after a brief fight."

"That's great to hear, we've gotten ourselves armed and ready just in case, eh?" Velarn looked to Armin, who looked back stoically.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to a stand-off, Velarn." Tevos sighed and rubbed her forehead. "On to the next item of business…"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Apocalypse Now, 54<em>_th__ Executioner Swarm, Low Orbit over New Constantinople, May 1, 3871_

The 54th Executioner Swarm was still short of original strength as they slugged it out with Covenant units across the main continent of New Constantinople. They'd been cut off from rapid re-supply by the Hurricane which had been drifting toward New Constantinople from the Atlas Moons. Sure, some of their reinforcements, NOT including the not-yet-built Executioner Command Group, were (finally) en route, but it would take a day to get here because SOMETHING had set off subspace to be annoying in the area as well, perhaps a bit of spill-over from the unusually strong and concentrated Hurricane? It wasn't unheard of, though to this extent, _something_ probably helped facilitate it.

* * *

><p><em>Several Parallel Universes Away…<em>

Captain Janeway sneezed violently before she wiped her nose with her sleeve "B'Elanna, you SURE you can't get the warp drive up and running higher?"

"No ma'am, that last power surge nearly destroyed it, best to play it careful for now…" The other woman replied.

The captain sighed "Fine, carry on, Janeway out."

* * *

><p><em>Capital, New Constantinople, May 1, 3871<em>

Regardless, the 54th Executioner Swarm's reinforcements were coming so slowly because over a thousand ships, not to mention three hundred-plus orbital defences of various classifications, had been lost in battle over Sanctuary. That alone tied up nearly a third of the Coalition's Ship Gantries (roughly three hundred Gantries) for two whole days cranking out new ships and stations to replace losses, though the Engineers on Sanctuary sent up the Light Orbital Defences, it still took some Gantry work to build the Medium and Heavy defence stations.

The Covenant was already in the capital of New Constantinople, it was an independent colony, and hence it was a sprawling landscape instead of the towering spires of Coalition cities. Still, it was good that the IC of New Constantinople was closer to the Coalition than most and had recently agreed to allow installation of Civilian Armouries.

The civilians were duelling it out with the attacking Covenant in the streets, led by the handful of Marines deployed from the Executioner Swarm above, who were handling the heavy weapons duties, each being equipped with an INL and Temporal Fizz Launcher. Sure, it might not be their usual choices, but this wasn't a Marine op, they needed to support the Civilians with heavy-duty firepower, firing rate and mowing duty could be left up to the gauss Pistols and Laser SMGs of the armoured civilians. Sure, Ivan couldn't bring in the big guns, but this would do, for now. The sprawling city was almost twenty-first century in that most of it was low-rise apartments, fairly closely packed homes or townhouses, but no matter…

* * *

><p><em>Capital, New Constantinople, May 1, 3871<em>

Usze's right eye was beginning to develop a nervous/frustrated/angry tic. Sure, she was Spec Ops just like N'tho was, but these guys… their weapons were a tad overdone. That was putting it lightly, why the hell they'd landed troops in this trap filled with Coalition infantry, she wasn't sure. A pair of missiles few over her cover in quick succession and blew a Wraith hover-tank sky-high, it only got one shot off before going up in a fireball. Why the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice had, along with Rtas, loaned the two of them, two Spec Ops troops, to this attempted attack on an "Independent Colony", she had no clue. It sure as hell didn't FEEL like an "Independent Colony" what with all the Coalition Marines, as Thel Vadamee had briefed the fleet on, running around blowing up every Covenant thing in the way. Usze had been forced into cover by a glancing shot from one of their snipers, which depleted her shields in two hits. If it wasn't because Rtas had given the Spec Ops troops better than standard shield generators, she'd be dead, most likely. The "Civilians" as the Marines were shouting at them, were equipped with weapons well able to match up against plasma rifles, well, their pistol-type guns were, the carbine-types were a bit weaker per bolt but still like a plasma pistol on steroids. She'd had to yank N'tho back behind cover before he got his head taken off, though his helmet was still singed from a rifle bolt that had burnt a hole through the fringe of it.

"Are you mad, N'tho?" She hissed in the large male (though he was still a tiny bit shorter than herself) "They're going to take your head off! At least wait for…"

N'tho snorted as explosions lit up the street "The Kig-Yar shields to cover us? Usze, those pop under heavy fire and you know it, the stuff those Coalition Marines are employing, that isn't heavy firepower, that's Armageddon for infantry, and you know it."

Usze looked out at the charred, dying Kig-Yar out in the street beyond their upended container, which thankfully no one had shot a rocket at yet. "Maybe you're right, you know what we gotta do now?"

"Run for it? That's stupid, we'd get shredded in seconds!" N'tho grumbled.

Usze rolled her eyes while more Unggoy were rushing the Coalition "civilians" and getting mown down "Do you have a better plan?"

"Yes. Look, here, dead Unggoy." N'tho grabbed one such dead Unggoy by the leg and began gesturing to it "Attach several plasma grenades, lob over at them, run like hell while they're distracted. Kig-Yar work even better, if they have an intact shield generator, as distractions."

Usze blinked "Smart, N'tho, smart, you realize Unggoy methane tanks are a big badda boom source?" She sighed "Alright, let's do this…"

"Remember, activate all the grenades at once and then fling the corpses at the enemy line." The male instructed.

"I think I figured that part out on my own." Usze said dryly, before they exchanged a glance and looked down at the corpses they'd amassed. "Let's do this thing."

They quickly hit the activation buttons for the plasma grenades before hurling the incendiary Grunts over their cover at the Coalition line, prompting yells of surprise, as the two Sangheili ran like hell. Sure, it didn't do much damage to the Coalition Civilian Armour, but explosive methane tanks strapped to plasma grenades coming down at you like mortar shells… very colourful mortar shells, tended to be freaky. That was especially true as the ICs did not enforce the same civilian training as the Coalition did, hence they weren't nearly as stable under fire as Coalition civvies would have been. Usze and N'tho managed to get back into cover far enough away to duck away down a side street leading out of the city before the Marines finished gunning down the other advancing Covenant, using some sort of telekinesis to help with the task. Those Marines didn't have a chance to target N'tho and Usze specifically, but their orders were that fleeing stragglers be allowed to leave alive just to scare the shit out of the Covenant anyways.

"That was close." Usze stated dryly.

"Really? I thought it was exciting."

Usze rolled her eyes and hissed "Men…" That earned her a shove form her best friend.

N'tho snorted "You're a man too, you know!"

Usze rolled her eyes "Still, not only women are allowed to say 'men', you know!"

There was a brief pause as they kept running, it was smarter to report back than to die stupidly, or so the Retribution Detachment had been taught. "You know what Kip would say if he was here?" N'tho suddenly asked.

Usze snorted as she ran "Probably something along the lines of 'please hand in your dick and pick up our complimentary vagina on your way out', I know what Kip's like at times, he's a pro-male-rights guy." Whereas most sentient species eventually developed feminism, Sangheili, having evolved with males being weaker and basically used to forge alliances through marriage and such in days of old, had the opposite. Needless to say, they had a magazine called "Playgirl", not "Playboy", but that was beside the point.

N'tho nodded once as they kept moving through the blasted rocks outside the city limits toward the evac ship the Supreme Commander had ordered them to pull back to if there was too much risk for the mission to be worth continuing. Oh well, they'd managed to nab a few books anyways, might be interesting, though why the fuck they were all in the language of the Forerunners neither Sangheili knew. The Prophets wanted to know why the Seraphim had reacted so badly to Regret's message, so here they were, getting books. "Agreed…" He growled as they jumped into the ship and Kip, who was the best pilot out of the three of them, looked back from the cockpit before lifting off. "I wonder what this box set is about."

After a while, the other male came back through the hatch "Autopilot's plotted, we're avoiding the main fleet engagement, so, what did you guys find?"

N'tho held up the box of books he'd been looking at, noting how the pages were made of paper of all primitive things "This."

Kip narrowed his eyes at the cover of the box, which depicted towering war machines glaring at the reader (A/N: **See my latest Deviant Art work**, you may also want to look at the GALAXY MAP) "'Children's History of the Infinite and Seraphim Wars', hmm, interesting… wouldn't that be a bit of a misnomer though? Wouldn't the 'Infinite War'" He put up air quotes, it had been in Sangheili practice for as long as they had history, according to legend, it was a habit passed down from the Forerunners to the Sangheili, Unggoy, and Mgalekgolo, since the "Hunters" as many called them had the same habit of air-quoting. "Be, I don't know, infinite?"

N'tho brushed it off "Obviously a misnomer for a war that lasted more than a few generations… twelve hundred years, as it says on this box, I believe, would be adequate to term a war the Infinite War assuming maximum life expectancy was below three hundred years, even if it's thanks to the war."

Usze was more thoughtful than that "That's a bit worrying, that they fought for twelve hundred years, if the colonies we've seen so far are any indication then their years are similar in length to ours."

Kip raised a brow "Could almost make me respect them. Think we should start scanning these now?"

Usze smirked "It seems we think alike, scan them up so we can read them ourselves too instead of sending them straight to the Prophets, I can see why the Supreme Commander and Rtas chose you for the Retribution Detachment."

N'tho butted in "And I remember why they created it, to get back at superior officers coming to tour the fleet, and we did a good job last time, didn't we?" They'd attached a more-or-less-depleted gas canister (NOT one of the Unggoy methane tanks) to the toilet instead of the standard vacuum hose. They'd included a throttle, so as to not blast the target himself into the air, but the officer in question was still quite angry at the customary pranks he ran into when touring the fleet (having his rear thoroughly sprayed with his own shit didn't help). Sure, Sangheili were known to be all about "honour" but pranks were taken as good fun and almost as a sort of test of one's skills at avoiding traps and counterattacking, though they may have gone a bit overboard with it…

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><p>AN: You will need to see the galaxy map I put on Deviant Art to understand some location references from now on. I'm also Guardian54 there, so no fear of not being able to tell if it's me.

I was going to put Liara's birthday celebration, btw it's May the Fourth, I know, Guardian54 reference as well as Star Wars, but still… then I decided having a major lemon where Liara gets more adventurous than ever before didn't fit with the main theme here. So the next time she'll be getting busy is going to be in a while, I guess.

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><p><em>CSC Boneguard, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, Independent Colonies between Cybran Nation and Seraphim Republic Space, July 7, 3871_

There had been over two months of near-silence already, and the Coalition's leaders were getting on-edge about the war with the Covenant, then again, they had to regroup sometime, didn't they? The Coalition had officially phased out all the older warship designs for the new ones, except for ops where space was actually an issue and many small guns were needed in independent platforms, or stealth ops, since the former role could typically more or less be covered by starfighters. A re-classification was on the horizon any day now. It had already been slated, according to some, for January 1st, 3872.

That was before the point though, since Hannah Shepard's crew aboard the _Boneguard_ had just picked up a distress signal form a nearby Independent Colony system. They were under attack by the Covenant and their fleet of purchased, aging warships (mostly Frigates and Corvettes loaned out with tech protection soft/hardware) were having a hard time even holding the line against the small recon group of Covenant warships that had entered their system. "Fucking hell, Engineering, how's realignment of the jump capacitors?" Hannah barked into her comm. as she ran into the bridge, adjusting her torso armour that she'd just donned over her bra and panties, fully aware of the fact that her ass was still hanging out as she hadn't clasped the leg pieces, which were still clipped to her back, on yet. She didn't care, right now was a time to be practical.

Her chief engineer having chosen this time to do a realignment cycle of the quantum jump capacitors, having been struck by an idea he had that could cut the charge time from twenty seconds down to fifteen, was NOT practical. "Sorry ma'am, but we won't be able to jump for another five minutes at best!" He called back.

Hannah drew up her HUD display of the nearby system in question and growled "Fucking hell, Clutch Four, jump in here, cut off these twelve Covenant capital ships headed toward the first colony." Those ships, coils already charged, jumped in on the rear of the Covenant ships, which immediately entered slipspace only for another group to drop in behind the Coalition warships. "This was a trap, crap." She noted how the defenders around the third colony were being overwhelmed and felt her heart sink "Clutches Two and Three, you jump in here and here." She put down the nav-points on the ecliptic near the battle of Clutch Four and the Covenant ships, which outnumbered them, before turning her attention to her own warships "ECG, prepare to go to warp. We can do that, right?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Good, gun it all the way to maximum warp ASAP, Clutch One, jump here, hammer the ships besieging the third colony!" She turned back to her controls as she watched, occasionally issuing orders.

The first Covenant ambush group, though now outnumbered two to one, fought on, relying on plasma projectors to inflict most of their real damage, but the manoeuvrability of Coalition warships made them difficult to hit, meaning that Covenant battle group was being hammered at nearly a one-to-one loss ratio of ships. Her own ECG's heavy warships were approaching quickly, but it would be several minutes before they could reach the field. In the meantime, Executioner Clutch Four of the 3rd Executioner Swarm was being clobbered over the third colony, even while her warships were tied up defending the first and the second was being methodically glassed.

Hannah punched her table _If only they'd agreed to let us install orbital defence stations…_ "HQ, do we have any reinforcements en route?"

"Negative, Covenant incursions have resumed all along the border" Dostya's face came up on her screen "We are drawing Executioner Swarms from the Terminus and Citadel borders to supplement the defence line but there's just too many of them. You'll have to deal with this mess on your own, sorry Hannah."

She sighed "Understood, Elite Commander, Hannah Shepard out." She watched as her own ships began winking off the display, though her crew loss count remained at zero, for now. They were making the Covenant pay though, as Executioner Clutches Two, Three and Four were smashing up the Covenant ships they were attacking before the next ambush group could reach them from where they'd decanted, swinging around the first ambushers to put them between the Coalition warships and the second bunch of ambushers. Clutch One was losing ships steadily, one of the smaller capital ships in it winking off the display every ten or so seconds now as the clock ticked down to when she could arrive and bolster them. The other three Clutches were retreating toward the first colony in-system and fighting all the way to drag out the time before the Covenant's reinforcements could arrive near them, since the slipspace jammers they'd deployed were still working. The second colony was slowly being glassed, she couldn't do shit about it, so she ignored it for now.

Her ECG came out of high warp near the beleaguered third colony, opening up with all guns in a torrential flood of fury on the Covenant warships that were tearing away at Clutch One, which was down to seven ships from its original twenty-four vessels. The remaining Covenant Battleship, which had been dealing most of the damage, buckled first as all the Executioner Command Group's guns focused on it first. They sliced through the screening Cruisers and Destroyers, which had been intercepting the Strategic Bomber runs with their own shields and hulls, to get to the behemoth. It joined the other Battleship the Strategic Bombers had successfully swarmed initially as a debris cloud once the second volley finally destroyed it and tore it to scrap metal before the twelve new arrivals turned on the smaller Covenant warships that had been responsible for shooting down most of the bombers Clutch One's carriers had put into the battle space. They couldn't jump because of the newer-model Slipspace jammers, hence were butchered between the fleets of vengeful warships, ending with the _Boneguard_ itself clearing away the last two Destroyers with its Mavors.

The ECG immediately jumped away, again at warp, since it was still a minute before they could use Quantum Jump again. They set about shoving as many Mavor, Ravager, Scathis, Sonance, Oblivion Cannon, etc. shells and as much Heavy Microwave Laser fire up the asses of the Destroyers and Battlecruisers glassing the second colony as they could while amping their slipspace jammers up to max. Even so, they had to close to knife-fighting distance to ensure the Covenant would be affected, cutting a neat hole of debris through the Covenant formation with the twelve Heavy and Super Battleships in extremely close, radially symmetrical formation before turning for another pass. They took plasma projector fire as they went, but still the behemoths were unfazed and continued to rain destruction on the Covenant warships before they jumped away again, leaving only a handful of shaken Covenant ships to continue glassing the planet slowly. All the major population centers were gone already, there was no point trying to save a dead colony when a nearly untouched one (except occasional missed plasma projector shots) was one jump away. Clutch One, severely depleted, was nursing its wounds and amassing as many starfighters as it could control just in case, while Clutches Two, Three and Four were drawing constantly cycling battle lines with the powerful Covenant warships over the first colony.

"ECG, CHARGE!" Hannah roared into the comm. as the Executioner Command Group came in on the tails of the Covenant battle line, half of which swung their guns around. That was too slow to stop the first volley of Mavor, Sonance and assorted other munitions from lashing into their shields before they could fire back. The smaller Cruisers and Destroyers began buckling fast, though the two Assault Carriers moved to shield them somewhat, the Super Battleships and Heavy Battleships were beginning to accrue noticeable amounts of shield damage as they bore down on the Covenant fleet until they reached point blank, upon which they abruptly stopped. Each turned just a bit to expose a full broadside's worth of Ravagers and other light weapons to rake the sides of the Assault Carriers. swung about in club-like fashion and rammed two of the Heavy Battleships hard enough to send the already heavily engaged ships spinning out of formation, if only for a moment, as their structural fields pulsed and absorbed the damage. Secondary fires raked the two damaged ships as an indicator of exactly how badly armour integrity had been compromised by the ramming, despite energy dispersion over the surface. (A/N: I hope that explains the game mechanism of units trailing smoke/fire) Those two warships pulled back as soon as possible via Quantum Jump to recharge shields and perform repairs with their many onboard engineering stations.

The remaining ten ships fought doggedly on, emptying all their guns into one Assault Carrier, heedless of all else. They had first disabled its engines with a blazing storm of Loa Tactical Missiles and were now blasting it out of the way—literally, as it was snapped in half by a blistering rain of Mavor and Scathis fire that tore their way through deck after deck, bulkhead after bulkhead, after penetrating the incredibly thick armour. Another Heavy Battleship slewed sideways as its structural fields began taking multiple hits from Plasma Projector after Plasma Projector, before ramming by the second Assault Carrier took out an engine pod. The ship disappeared with a brilliant flash as it jumped away, heavily damaged and most likely out of the fight for quite a bit.

The other ships pushed through the gap between the halves of the destroyed Assault Carrier, which somehow managed to still move… "They're MODULAR?" Hannah exclaimed in shock, then remembered that previous encounters with the ships involved peppering the whole ship with fire until it burnt to a crisp, not a surgical slice down the middle. The sections limped away from the battlefield as that ECG came back for a second pass, getting far enough to jump into slipspace and getting away "Damn, they've really been gearing up their warships, well, Covenant, FUCK YOOOOOOUUUUUU!" She yelled, swinging the _Boneguard's_ nose into the prow of the second Assault Carrier, the two giants crashing together with loud buckling of armour plating on the Covenant side and the wail of internal structural field alarms all over the _Boneguard's_ empty halls. The fields had gone down to just below 75% from the ramming, though the shields had taken less damage, the others still stood in formation around the _Boneguard_ as they soaked up fire for the flagship while the two capital ships pushed at each other. Having bypassed the armour, the _Boneguard's_ forward-aligned Scathis Rapid-Fire Artilleries uncovered their barrels and began to churn out shell after shell. The Mavors were doing the same directly down the centerline of the Assault Carrier. The Covenant ship was firing back with all onboard weapons into the Super Battleship wedged into its prow as it tried to push the _Boneguard_ hard enough to shake it off.

That wasn't working as well as the Covenant had hoped, and the surrounding fleet trying to help the damaged Assault Carrier was an exercise in futility. Loa TMs, Ravager and heavier guns fired away at them, smashing smaller ships out of the way while the wild manoeuvres of the Coalition capital ships kept the larger ships at bay. The Assault Carrier was slowly being outdone by a ship less than a quarter of its length, much to the Covenant's amazement. It was fairly obvious what had happened: By punching through the forward armour of the Assault Carrier with its prow the _Boneguard_ had opened a weak point through which it could stick its nose and fire its _real_ heavy-duty guns. The Plasma Projectors were whittling away steadily at the _Boneguard's_ fields, having carved its shields down to nothing already, and both ships were covered with damage on the outside already from their many guns firing at one another. But what really mattered, on the inside, was that the _Boneguard's_ prow guns were still intact and firing once every few seconds into the relatively soft innards of the Assault Carrier. That stopped though, when a stupidly brave CCS-class Battle Cruiser managed to run through the screens and hit the _Boneguard_ in the side, near the stern and a little below the centerline, sending it snapping out of the Assault Carrier's holed prow and venting its anger into the hapless CCS which the rest of the ECG was focusing on, destroying it in a few short seconds before they had to jump away toward the still-engaged battle line, which was pushing forward now. The _Boneguard_ was surrounded by flying Asylums while it lit up with engineering drones and engineering fields performing repairs all over it. Its structural fields had come very close to the 30% "Abandon Ship" line, and only the timely local jump allowed it to leave in time before the escape Geminis would have fired off.

The Covenant ships jumped away too, but to a different target. Clutch One was immediately under attack as the Covenant at the third colony, having pulled back already, came back with their new reinforcements. The swarm of Strategic Bombers managed to take down many of the capital ships, but it was just too much… and the ECG was too damaged to head straight back into battle like that, hence Hannah did what she could: send over Clutches Two and Three to help fight the fleet bogging Clutch One down. It was what was allowing the other Covenant warships to proceed with glassing operations and shooting down civilian freighters that were trying to flee even while Coalition ship after Coalition ship died overhead, despite the other two damaged Executioner Clutches jumping in, the numbers were still too steep and the Covenant finished glassing all the main population centers before they could be pushed back at the cost of some thirty warships and a few crew members. Hannah's fists were tightly clenched as she watched her ships being pushed back again as the glassing Covenant ships engaged them. "Pull out, pull out, everyone regroup around the innermost colony!" She growled, knowing that this war had reached a new phase. Never again, she vowed, never again would such travesties occur under her watch, no matter how many ships she had to requisition from the hundreds of Gantries scattered throughout Coalition space, all heavily defended, never again would another colony be glassed while she was present…

"Hannah, we have bad news" Elite Commander Dostya sent a transmission "Arcadia has finally been glassed, they came around and destroyed the planet in retribution for the losses they took there."

Hannah growled in frustration "Damn it, another colony gone, how many? How many lost so far?"

"About thirty colonies, mostly ICs, have been glassed so far." Dostya replied simply.

"Alright, then we will destroy nine thousand of their warships in retribution." Hannah cracked her knuckles "When will my reinforcements get here? We need to kick the Covenant out of the system before we can start stuffing the ships with civvies."

"They should be arriving right about… now." With a series of flashes two full Executioner Clutches' worth of ships appeared next to the remains of the Third Executioner Swarm. "Good hunting."

"Dostya, I don't think an Executioner Swarm will do it anymore, I need something bigger if I'm going to go on the offensive. I'm sending the request now…"

Dostya raised her eyebrows as she read the numbers "A larger battle group? I think I can get that approved, you'll have to conclude this battle first before we can send them over."

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><p><em>CSC Boneguard, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, Paris IV, July 17, 3871_

The siege of Paris IV had lasted for ten whole days already, hundreds of wrecked hulks littered space above the planet while hundreds of thousands of Covenant soldiers below slugged it out against the units deployed by the Command Bunker and its engineers. Neither side could keep aerospace superiority; it was only the Coalition's land units that prevented the Covenant from overrunning the cities. Sadly, a Command Bunker was NOT authorized to construct experimentals, hence why it was so damned long a fight.

That situation was about to change as the bulked-up Third Executioner Swarm, double the standard ECG size and with six Clutches instead of four, jumped in and began blasting away at the Covenant fleet holding position on the Covenant side of the line. The Covenant warships, many still sporting damage, moved to engage as their own reinforcements came in. What followed was an epic slugfest where the line-holding abilities of Coalition ECG ships were proven again, including a slug-out against three Covenant Battleships, which had to be won by numbers, since the Covenant Battleships had too much firepower on their side.

The smaller ships were easier to deal with via the torrents of fire put down by the twenty-four Battleships, twenty-four Fleet Carriers, forty-eight BCs and 48 ECs, not to mention the thousands of starfighters that swarmed them. Though the starfighters were taking large losses from the plasma torpedoes fired in droves by the Covenant, they pressed on to smash their payloads into the Covenant's shields. That helped the capital ships blast the Covenant vessels down while the ECG was overpowering the Covenant Battleships with sheer numbers and torrential fire.

The battle was over in fifteen minutes as the Covenant ships pulled back into slipspace, the Coalition warships merely using a few Mavor shells sent into slipspace after them. Slipspace was not stable for energy weapons, but for big, heavy slugs, well, those worked as a slipspace explosion nearly, but sadly did not, manage to drive some of the more damaged ships out into normal space. The Coalition had taken losses, but with their numbers had destroyed a significant Covenant fleet already.

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><p>AN: Sorry that real life got in the way, expect my update rate to be a crawl for me for the next while, maybe one chapter per four or five days if I'm lucky. Real life is eating up my time now. Oh, and FFN glitched somehow on May 9th, hence… yeah.

_Last Stand of the Boneguard_ will most likely take a while to go up, and yes, we'll see Thel Lodam again, but in the meantime… CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

How many MORE, so far unseen, past lives should I give Liara/John/James/Tali? I'm thinking they could be able to cross universes in their resurrection cycles. So far I'm thinking one where they are in a universe where C&C is reality (also an origin story for that universe's Asari race, and yeah it's the same one we saw in the joke view of another universe in SupCom: ME, the first fic of this string), one based on Left 4 Dead, and a few others based on other things. Regardless, every time their relationship will end with one of each pair dying horribly ever after… until now. REQUESTS WILL BE HEARD, BUT ONLY IF THEY ARE IN A REVIEW!

REVIEW!


	9. Last Stand of the Boneguard

A/N: Finally, it's time for the Battle of Psi Serpentis.

OH MY GOD! NO, MASTERMIND, NO! The Liara being a zombie flashback was NOT from Left 4 Dead! Seriously! John grabbing the Chainsaw in that flashback has NOTHING to do with Left 4 Dead! It's the same universe where she tried to include the names of what she was or should have been into what she used… Heh, you'll figure it out when I get there. What is really depressing about quite a few of the past lives is that Liara has several times accidentally killed John. Imagine how badly THAT must hurt.

Expect a few more Commander T'Soni things in this chapter. Thanks to Anon for pointing out a plot hole regarding territory sizes and ship counts. It is explained in the first few paragraphs. Also, the Cyrannus Colonials are quite a bit south of Cybran Space, near the ICs there, though the ICs know not to go near the overzealous Colonials. As for the Race, well…

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><p>I forgot to put this in earlier when the Covenant was still on Harvest:<p>

_Fades in to Harvest, seen from orbit, a lush garden world_

Hannah Shepard: Division Commander's log, February 25, 3871. Five days, five whole days, that's how long it took to get Harvest back.

_Harvest fades out, fades in to show a Covenant force sneaking into a city when suddenly and totally silently they get smashed to pulp. Multiple Mech Marines fade in from their active/passive camouflage (aka near-total invisibility without even a ripple) and open fire on the Wraiths that had accompanied the infantry, blowing them away within a couple shots each._

Hannah: At first it was going well…

_Shows fully upgraded Cybran ACU looking toward a city in the distance._

Hannah: But then they hunkered down in the wilds.

_Shows her HUD map, Covenant signatures are all over the forests of Harvest's main continent. She huffs and sets her jaw._

Hannah: Failure after failure to persuade them to surrender.

_Camera cuts to Hannah losing her patience and sending out the Stingers to hunt down the Covenant who fled into the wilds._

Hannah: Hunt after environmentally friendly hunt for stragglers.

_A bunch of Covenant huddling around a pitiful campfire in a forest, trying to stay warm with the trees still winter-bare, rubbing their hands together and huddling for warmth, spontaneously blow up. Camera swings upward to the gap in the canopy, a Shimmer-class Attack Bomber turns off active and passive camo in time to be seen zipping out of sight. Camera cuts to a view from above into the forest, with a few holes here and there, and the same crescent-shaped bomber zips by._

Hannah: Turned what was going to be a quick and easy win, into five days of hell…

_She finally loses enough patience to send out strategic bombers, lighting off huge forest fires that she dropped Engineers into, to reclaim the blazing trees. Note that a single SB bomb lights off the forest for kilometres, though most of their yield is contained in the small area of their main blast. Camera fades to black._

Hannah: That was what Harvest was for the Covenant when we got it back, hell. But for us, well, it was ours again.

_Fade Out to Black._

YES, RIP-OFF OF START CINEMATIC OF HALO WARS.

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><p>Chapter 9: Last Stand of the Boneguard<p>

_CSC Boneguard, 3__rd__ Executioner Swarm, October 21, 3871_

The war had dragged on for over half a year now, and Hannah was incredibly surprised the Covenant, with the amount of space Lodam had described as belonging to them, hadn't tried to swamp the Coalition yet. He had asked, and he'd explained that though the Covenant controlled a very large area of space, they didn't have all that many warships due to the relatively recent Unggoy Rebellions and the fact that Covenant warships were considered tough enough and that too many warships readily available would increase the chance of a civil conflict, especially between the Sangheili and Jiralhanae. Also, Covenant ships took a long time to build, years for the large Super Carriers or sometimes even Assault Carriers, not like Coalition warships which could be replaced in less than a day by a single Gantry—the Gantries had been multiplying recently by a new treaty amendment that allowed the construction of more Gantries. Also, Covenant fleets were generally not as large, since a handful of ships could given several days glass a planet, it was considered unnecessary to assemble truly gigantic fleets much of the time.

The Covenant's religious motivation also meant they had a lot of population dedicated to religion and not as much as one would think toward the military, besides, drafting and training required time, at least two years before a flood of warriors crewing ships drawn up from the reserves showed up. It wasn't that the Covenant didn't have enough ships in storage, it was that they didn't have enough crew members, for example, an Assault Carrier required tens of thousands to run efficiently. It wasn't like they could draw people from 3000 worlds either, since the Unggoy Rebellion had meant more than a few worlds were glassed. They still had well over double the Coalition population, but their terraforming tech wasn't so great. Whereas a decent job could be done on a glassed or roasted world, like Earth after the Seraphim Imperium took it, in under a year by the Coalition, the Covenant would require decades or more before it could be a full-fledged garden world. The only reason the restoration of Earth took as long as it did was because humanity wanted the Homeworld to be EXACTLY the way (minus ancient pollution sites) it was before, not just terraformed enough to be a garden world.

In terms of ships, well, several decades of vicious war between the Unggoy rebels and the Covenant were a big drain on ships, and the Covenant was taking ships out of mothball fleets. Grabbing able crew members from the reserves too time, and so did re-training them. More crew would be available with time but both Lodam and Shepard hoped the war would be over before that point, because if it came down to it, well, gates were seeping into Covenant space and an ACU blitz could be launched almost any time. The Covenant would end up glassing their own planets, and the pilots could just recall.

The reinforced 3rd Executioner Swarm's kill count had rose to a thousand total Covenant ships already (not to mention totally wailing on Batarian raiders to the galactic north). This time, though, would be a big one. There was a Covenant fleet of six hundred vessels in the Psi Serpentis System, and Hannah had picked up another three hundred of them in slipspace nearby, her fleet of 168 vessels would be hard-pressed to handle either group. She had a solution planned already, using stealthed small ships to scope out the system that would be a staging point for the next wave of Covenant attacks along the Coalition-Covenant border. They still didn't realize that there were about a thousand now thoroughly fortified Cybran planets already behind the current border. She'd managed to thoroughly analyze the Covenant fleet's strength, and she had a plan…

Said plan involved requesting permission from Dostya, and Seth too just to be safe, to use, well, something not used before. An underslung rack, armoured enough to be an extra bay, had been fitted to the _Boneguard's_ hull with four Yolona Oss missiles attached, She'd determined that a single one would be enough to wreck the Super Carrier that was in-system if it was a hit amidships, and three would be able to most certainly light off the gas super-giant planet in-system, Viperidae, which was closer to a brown dwarf in size, into a temporary nova. Well, one could probably start the required reaction, but she wanted to be sure of this. Other than that, she'd built hundreds of Athanah Mobile Shield Generators and tacked them to the outsides of her ships to provide point shielding, though in a way the energy cost wasn't worth it, she needed as much durability as possible. Oh, and let's not forget the several rooms' worth of solid armour she'd added, shrinking the internal spaces of her warships significantly. She'd also replaced all her Restorers with strategic bombers.

Thel Lodam, who'd changed his name because he was no longer in the Covenant military, had agreed to help out since he'd been shown some of the evidence found in the Dyson Sphere John had destroyed and other things. To quote him "If the Apex recognized members of your kind as Admiral and Mistress, and if what you've found so far is true, then we're getting used. Besides, most of that fleet is Jiralhanae, sent by the Prophets on test runs, only the fleet waiting in slipspace are Sangheili."

"What are Jiralhanae?" Hannah had questioned, looking up from lunch.

"What you'd call basically gorillas, except more brutish." Lodam had blinked "Actually, with Jenkins showing me that Yuri's Revenge game, I think we should call them Brutes."

"Not a bad idea, so, what do you think we should do to help them?"

"For the Fleet Master and his fleet to work with the Jiralhanae at all would mean they're kissing the Prophet's asses. If you end up destroying them too, I wouldn't blame you, still, I have an idea as to what transmission you can send to them to get them riled up…"

"Tell me." She had stated simply, and so he did.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Boneguard, 3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, Psi Serpentis System, October 27, 3871_

The one hundred and sixty-eight warships of the Third Executioner Swarm jumped in-system as a single unit, sending out a pulse of transmitted static on purpose to announce their presence. They were gone nearly as soon as they arrived, as soon as the Covenant fleet move in an in-system jump to intercept. Jumping into orbit around Viperidae, the fleet spread out into four elements, two were a pair of Executioner Clutches each but the other two, the stronger two, were an Executioner Clutch plus an ECG each.

The Covenant ships came roaring back out of slipspace near the gas giant, immediately being swarmed by the huge cloud of starfighters the Third Executioner Swarm had left behind. Though the thousands of Shockers, Revenants and Geminis were slowly whittled down, they a hundred Covenant warships with them, and were being replaced even as the carriers made their way around the planet. Besides, with the active stealth of Revenants and Geminis, it took one hell of a long time for the Covenant to kill all of them. Well, it wasn't that it didn't take them a while to take out the Shockers, even without Active Stealth.

By the time the last starfighter was taken down by a pair of plasma torpedoes, the Covenant were down over a hundred ships and were still pursuing the third Executioner Swarm around Viperidae.

Thel Lodam snorted at that from where he was leaning on the bridge door with Jenkins, in full armour, watching him still (it was a perfectly understandable safety precaution) "Typical Jiralhanae behaviour, can't see what's right in front of them, all the better for us then."

Hannah grunted assent "Agreed, Lodam." She hit the hotkeys for the three other fleet divisions and ordered close-range Quantum Jumping behind the Covenant groups pursuing her own, knowing well that the Slipspace jammers she'd ordered them to pop just now would delay the Covenant reinforcements.

Now this stack-up was more even than before, her fleet of 168 ships against 100-some Covenant ships, with their starfighters now somewhat replenished after the three minutes of the chase, the Carriers of the 3rd Executioner Swarm unleashed their newly-built fighters, including the Asylums they'd been holding back. Those shield bubbles soaked up quite a number of plasma torpedoes before they popped, resulting in very few en-rout losses to the starfighters, while the Coalition ships bottled the Covenant detachment in and started wailing on them with all their weapons. Needless to say, the Covenant tried to jump, but the slipspace portals simply wouldn't open… So they were forced to return fire to the best of their ability and try to smash through the Coalition formation ahead, which had been reinforced by another Executioner Clutch.

Anyone with intelligence would know it was unwise to play chicken and ramming games with someone who had bow guns and structural fields, but Jiralhanae weren't known for their intelligence. They rammed the smaller Coaltiion warships aside, gouging and gashing their own armour as they barrelled past, leaving only relatively minor structural field damage to the ships they hit. The more dangerous threat by far was the Plasma Projectors they were firing, which cut down over a dozen Coalition warships in the exchange before the Jiralhanae group broke free and looped back outside the surrounding formation. The Coalition ships, being faster and more nimble, rearranged themselves to form a parabolic formation and kept firing their forward Mavors and Scathis guns. Both sides were losing ships steadily, but the Covenant was dying far faster, partly because of the angry bees (starfighters) that kept on bombarding them.

The battle was vicious, both sides' ships closing to nearly zero distance, blasting away at each other from under two hundred meters at best, effectively nothing in starship terms. It was perfect for mass deployment of Ravagers though, and literally thousands of the powerful point defence guns were rattling away at the Covenant, venting coolant continually (and fabricating more) as they went into overheat, gouging at the Covenant's gun turrets. Oblivion Cannons, Quarnon Cannons, Ultrachromatic Beam Generators and so on were focusing on blasting through the hull armour as the ships remained sitting there, trading heavy weapons fire incessantly. Tens of thousands of Loa Tactical Missiles and Plasma Torpedoes were fired every few seconds as the two looming fleets of behemoths slugged it out at point-blank. Most of the Heavy Battleships and Super Battleships had, to ensure hits with their Mavors and Scathis guns, been resorting to the same type of tactics as the _Boneguard_ had. They were locking themselves with their foes (generally by ramming) and blasting away into them with their forward guns while every other weapon fired at one target per flank.

Ship after ship fell on both sides, by the end of the exchange, every Covenant ship was burnt-out scrap and the Third Executioner Swarm was down three of twenty-four Battleships, two of twenty-four Fleet Carriers, nine of 48 Battle Cruisers and eleven of 48 Escort Carriers.

The Covenant fleet had regrouped now, coming after them as a single body. Needless to say, Hannah Shepard ran, keeping an eye on her starfighter counter. After a merry chase through the inner system (Lodam: "Those Sangheili hanging there in slipspace are probably laughing their asses off at the Jiralhanae stupidity") her starfighters were replenished again. She sent them away from the main fleet under active stealth. Deceivers carried by Dragon Fly T2 Stealth Transports provided coverage for the Asylums and Whailers while the Geminis, Revenants and a few Spooks relied on their own powerful active stealth systems. A steady stream of additional units joined them every few minutes as the Coalition's speed meant the Covenant was lagging behind, and they could jump away to deal with in-system slipspace jumps by the Covenant. When her starfighter swarm reached near critical size, and the various Carriers were full again, she spun the fleet and opened fire on the pursuing Covenant warships. The weakness with the Covenant was that Plasma Projectors had a maximum engagement range of two light-seconds or so at full power, beyond which it began to taper off, much as Heavy Microwave Lasers did even in vacuum. Needless to say, that would be horrifically inaccurate, hence why neither fleet opened up for now…

Neither fleet opened fire until the Covenant smashed head-on into the silent Mavor shells that had been fired at them and disappeared into the darkness of space. They would self-destruct if they missed their targets by too much and couldn't acquire a second one, since big, flying, stealthed lumps of metal tended to make for traffic hazards. Explosions of small amounts of antimatter annihilating itself rippled across the shields of the Covenant warships in a rising tide of fury before beam weapons from both sides lashed out at the other. Heavy Microwave Lasers and Plasma Projectors connected the fleets with lines of light, the Projectors far brighter than the lasers but only temporarily, much like the plasma beams and accelerators fired by the Coalition warships straight back. Shields flared on both sides and strained on the weaker warships of both sides.

A Covenant Cruiser was hacked apart like a block of butter as two Escort Carriers on the other side fell victim to vicious slashing by Plasma Projectors. The losses were beginning to mount among the weaker Coalition capital ships and the Covenant was again losing fewer ships than their counterparts, an unaffordable situation… but then over nine thousand Proton Bombs smashed into the ships near the rear of the Covenant front. The Revenants had timed their repeated vertical loops so that they'd always release the bombs at the same point in the loop, flying the same direction, and of course, so that the bombs would hit more or less simultaneously. Needless to say, there went several dozen Covenant Cruisers and Destroyers right there, before the Revenants finally stopped looping in place chucking bombs and leapt to the attack. They were spearheaded by the Geminis that mowed down the few remaining Seraphs and chipped away at the weapons emplacements on the capital ships as much as possible through the narrow shield openings needed to fire weapons through. The Whailers brought up the rear and, well, wailed through the openings in the shields whenever they appeared, braving the pulse laser fire to get under the Covenant's protective bubble before beginning to slowly scrub away (via Disintegrator Pulse Laser fire) at the turrets that were vigorously returning fire. Many of the Heavy Gunships were swatted into scrap metal pieces, but even more managed to smash the turrets into the plating and blast away at the holes. The best thing was that the other Covenant ships couldn't help out, except by redoubling their efforts against the now wildly manoeuvring Coalition warships as the river of gnats swarmed under their skins and started eating away at their teeth. After all, firing plasma torpedoes in the direction of neighbouring friendly ships was…

"Wait, I have a feeling the Jiralhanae are just dumb enough to…" Thel Lodam didn't get to finish before he keeled over laughing as the Brutes started firing plasma torpedoes at the bombers and gunships harassing their compatriots.

Hannah snorted as she watched the Covenant (Brute) fleet descend into anarchy as the nimble starfighters dodged shot after shot, most of which resulted in friendly fire among the Jiralhanae "Dumb brutes, your term for them was entirely too appropriate… ever wonder why we're talking the same language?"

"Maybe we both had contact with the Forerunners?" Lodam grumbled before his eyes widened in alarm, looking at the screen from where he was leaning in the doorway still. "The Sangheili are jumping in to engage! You don't stand a chance!" He exclaimed, Jenkins tensed a little in case he needed to wrestle the taller alien to the ground. Sure, Thel was friendly and all, but you could never tell…

"Crap, there's too many, we're heading down! Third Executioner Swarm, disengage, NOW! Withdraw, withdraw! The _Boneguard_ will deal with them!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY DIVISION COMM—?" voices shouted from all over the fleet at once at the broadcast.

"No I'm not, finish whatever jobs" as in ships "you're handling right now and get ready to move out!" She barked "You will obey your superior's orders!"

"Aye, ma'am…" was the general response though it was rather sullen as firepower output became impossibly even more intense as the ships began waggling their tails to allow the Ravagers, Quarnon Cannons, Ultrachromatic Beam Generators and other weapons on their broadsides to fire full volleys. True, it meant a bit more damage taken but the battle would soon be over anyways.

As soon as they finished up another Covenant detachment the remaining ships jumped out as one, leaving the _Boneguard_ to turn and plunge into the atmosphere of Viperidae before the Sangheili side of the Covenant fleet could get close enough to open fire on the Super Battleship. It cut a long tunnel through the clouds and lost the Covenant's tracking sensors, hence they followed it in, just as she'd planned… But there weren't enough of them, and so she gave the speech Thel had helped her plan earlier, even while she and the crew made their way to the add-on hangar bay.

Amping up all the _Boneguard's_ transmitters meant every receiver on the Covenant ships was instantly overwhelmed with her powerful voice "Listen to me, Covenant, I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard commanding the Coalition flagship, the _Boneguard_. You claim to be the holy and glorious inheritors of the universe? I spit on your so-called holiness. You dare judge us unfit? After I have personally sent no less than a thousand of your vainglorious ships to hell? After kicking your collective asses off Harvest like you were nothing? From where I sit, we are the worthy inheritors! You think otherwise? Come and try to prove me wrong."

A fusillade of plasma projector shots missed the Boneguard by several hundred meters as she grinned and noted the contacts coming toward her in the clouds, on her Omni/Radar, already starting to take interference from the clouds and losing range steadily, though it would be a cold day in hell before she couldn't pick up the utterly un-stealthy Covenant warships from at least a quarter of a system away. A quick roll by the 1200-meter Super Battleship ensured several more ranging shots missed. The Covenant seemed to not have detected her yet, excellent. She, on the other hand, could clearly detect the lone Super Carrier in-system entering the atmosphere in pursuit of her ship, loosing probing shots with its plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers, saving the plasma projectors for later.

Hannah Shepard jammed her finger down on the first Big Red Button (TM) and grinned savagely as her readouts indicated the first Yolona Oss missile had just been fired at the lead Covenant ship. It had been plotted on a course that would take it directly into the flank of the Super Carrier, amidships, when all its plasma projectors would be oriented more or less forward, as it followed the swath the _Boneguard_ had cut through the clouds. Well, it followed as well as a much larger ship could, with its sensors lighting up the surrounding clouds. Against the Experimental Strategic Missile, that wouldn't be enough, detection did not mean definite destruction.

The missile showed up on sensors too late, too close, the Covenant not even having time to slew around a single plasma projector let alone the two that would be needed to kill the huge projectile. It was a clean hit amidships to the Super Carrier's fully powered shields. Four hundred Gigatons of energy lashed forward in a cone thirty degrees wide into the shields, and overwhelmed them in milliseconds before blasting up against the Super Carrier's hull and snapping the ship's keel (and the ship) cleanly in two, just before the remaining starfighters, Revenants all, that the _Boneguard_ had hoarded until this moment, came in and zipped under what was left of the shields at either end of the ship, targeting every single drive on every single pod of the vessel, which was by itself more than large enough for an ACU battle to be fought atop. The loss of its thrusters, however, spelt doom for the ship as it began to fall into Viperidae's atmosphere. The Revenants were hammered down by massed plasma torpedo fire at close range as soon as the Super Carrier went down, but they had done what they were meant to do.

The rest of the Covenant fleet slowed for a moment before continuing the hunt, even more plasma projector beams lashing through the roiling clouds to seek out the _Boneguard_. Even more ships closed distance with the super-giant planet to seek out their foe… Hannah smirked, and hit the second Big Red Button she'd programmed, firing off the other three missiles the _Boneguard_ had carried before taking the Super Battleship deeper into the atmosphere of Viperidae. "Charge the Quantum Jump. Be ready to jump at any moment." The screens read affirmatives to her announcements.

"Fusion Event in ten, nine, eight, seven…" The compute counted before amending "Nova event in ten, nine, eight, seven…"

At seven seconds from the Nova event, two seconds before the simultaneous detonation of the three missiles, the first Covenant warship got a solid hit on the _Boneguard's_ shields even as it was doing a barrel roll. The news spread among the associated intelligences of the Covenant fleet and they began coordinating weapons on the area of the last hit.

At three seconds from the Nova event, two seconds after the detonation of the missiles and the beginning of thermonuclear fusion within the gas super-giant, the shields of the _Boneguard_ collapsed and the plasma projectors began flaying at the structural fields and thick armour plating covering the ship. Plasma Torpedoes and Pulse Lasers tried to track it but were shot away by Loa Tactical Missiles intercepting the projectiles and Electron Flak prematurely setting off the Plasma Torpedoes, which weren't nearly as sophisticated as Coalition equivalents (except the guidance) and could be disturbed by the electrical discharges of the flak shells.

At one second from the Nova event, the _Boneguard's_ structural fields collapsed and the remaining armour of the ship was gouged at by plasma projectors. It began to be burnt out by the firepower directed at it, and kept going on a ballistic course toward the roiling destruction that came from below. No one noticed the tiny flash from the fractured hangar bay doors before the nova swallowed the Super Battleship and the Covenant fleet surrounding Viperidae up.

* * *

><p><em>3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, System near Psi Serpentis, October 27, 3871_

The crews of the remaining warships of the Third Executioner Swarm waited with bated breaths for the return of their Division Commander. As soon as they picked up the detonations inside Viperidae from the _Boneguard's_ feed, the whole fleet had tensed. When telemetry had been cut things became even tenser, but a moment later it all disappeared with the appearance of a single 3860 Corvette, sitting proudly next to the behemoths of the Third Executioner Swarm. Wild cheering erupted as a familiar smirking face appeared on holo-screens all over the Third E-Swarm. "Well crew, we've nearly doubled our kill count today in ships, this calls for a celebration! First though, let us mourn the lives that had to be spent because of the foolish leaders of the Covenant, the Prophets. I call for a moment of silence."

It was one hell of a long moment even as the Corvette docked with another Super Battleship and the crew entered it. Thel Lodam, shaking his head slowly as he walked out of the airlock, was stopped by a black-armoured hand on his chest. "How are you doing?" The red-lighted face asked him through the helmet, her hand returning to her side.

Thel sighed "could be better, I can understand why you did what you did, but that doesn't make seeing tens of thousands of my brethren die in a moment any less painful. That tactic was a bit underhanded, you know."

She shrugged "I am aware of that, Lodam, but you yourself said that your kind valued tactical ingenuity. Besides, it was rather obvious I was planning something…"

Lodam snorted at that "Well, hindsight is always perfect…" he suddenly blinked and grinned "So THAT'S why you had the crew move all personal effects to this ship!"

Hannah grinned smugly "Yep, I would have used a different ship for the job, but even with my authority I could only justify adding so many add-ons to only my flagship…"

Lodam clacked his mandibles, raising his brows "You're… good, you know that?"

She kept grinning with those red helmet lights as they moved through the halls "Yep."

Thel Lodam rolled his eyes "So modest too." They shared a laugh before he asked "So, about those flares that could somewhat redirect plasma torpedoes, kind of, what were they?"

"Will-O-The-Wisp Tactical Missile Defence flares, hard to overwhelm one with missiles, very hard, not worth the effort." Hannah replied simply "It is said that Command T'Soni from long ago used so many tactical missiles that the Aeon Illuminate came up with the system simply to counter her."

"That must be…" Lodam's mandibles worked a few times without any sound coming out as he tried to picture enough missiles being fired every time to justify throwing resources into developing a whole new system.

"A shitload of missiles?"

"Yeah."

"Tell me more about this Commander T'Soni…"

Hannah shrugged "No one knows just what she looks like, only descriptions remain, but she was a legend alright, came up with a whole load of designs the Cybran Nation still uses today, and caused a number of designs to come into being among the UEF and Aeon…"

* * *

><p><em>A Long, Long Time Ago, On a Planet Far, Far Away… aka Procyon<em>

Commander T'Soni hovered over the ramp leading down to the control rooms of the testing grounds, her dress levitating with her body, never once brushing the ground nor making a sound. "How are the designs?" She asked the supervisor currently on-shift.

"Excellent, your Revenant design outstrips previous strategic bomber designs significantly, of course, it is expensive, but as you said, it's about time our Tier 3 units got tougher and caught up with the times. The Experimental Gunship's still under testing though."

She nodded "Alright, remember the policy, keep making improvements and adding tech, that bomber design will be critical in the future, I know it."

The man bowed his head in deference, knowing she really could see the future "Understood, ma'am."

She nodded again, curtly "Good." She said simply, before she turned around and hovered toward the rack of old units. Looking up at the racks of units, old and new, she smirked "I still remember when I first created the Renegade Gunship design…" She said to herself before looking down to ground level, her voice falling lower with her gaze, the corners of her mouth doing the same "And you, how could I forget about you? The Mark One Loyalist… You are everything I failed at being… I should have given up my life to protect him, but I failed… I could never have lifted a finger against him, yet I was the one to kill him, ironic isn't it?" She chuckled hollowly, wiping her eyes on her blue arm-length glove before drying that with her mind (draining tears from one's eyes could be irritating, she'd found that out when she was only an infant). "I shouldn't think so often of this, so many years, and I still haven't forgotten the look on your face when I ended you, John… But I swear before my first unit design, the first Loyalist Siege Assault Bot to exist, that I will not allow the next round to lose!" She shook her head vigorously before turning and moving away from the deserted racks and going back to bouncing design ideas off the crew manning the testing grounds.

Watching the latest design she'd put up, the Soul Ripper Experimental-sized Gunship, undergo the trials, she set her jaw. It reflected herself, how she had been the one to tear out her own soul so many years ago when she killed her mate, and it would tear apart all who stood between her and her objective. She had a purpose in life, and she would not fail, no matter what it took.

* * *

><p>AN: Do not fear, John Shepard and the crew will be back VERY soon.

This chapter is dedicated to the _Boneguard_ and of course Age of Empires 3. Of course, I'm going to keep the number of past lives small. Of course, after I finish the main string, I'll have a few spin-offs that roughly involve the same crew but different settings and such. Those can be past lives that aren't really linked to the overarching plot but are just there for my idling in other fandoms. I mean, I want to write C&C sometime, and I can't imagine a better cast than a roughly equivalent cast from ME.

**CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE SPIRE ONE IS, IN VIERY TERRITROY ON REACH? (As in is it Western shore, Eastern Shore, or something on the damned Halo Wiki map?) I NEED IT FOR TWO CHAPTERS LATER!**

REVIEW!


	10. Sigma Octanus, Laws of Anime, etc

A/N: Yeah, I know, Commander T'Soni really IS a legend with how much of the Infinite War's stuff either hers or because of her.

I KNOW ABOUT SUPCOM 2 AND THE BATTLE PACK, HOWEVER NOTE MY TIMELINE DEVIATES AFTER FA. HENCE EXPECT **VERY** FEW INCLUSIONS (NOTE THAT PARAFIELD COMBINES SHIELD GEN AND BODABOOM-STYLE FIELD BOOST).

As for SupCom Mods, this is in its own way its own Mod already, have you not noticed how much I've changed? Experimental hard-points, upgrade options, unit designs (a bit)?

Rather obviously, I am going through with the Halo campaign, though space battles will be more balanced and land battles are *MANY, MANY Fatboys roll by* well, yeah. The reason I put John-117 in the character list was because N7 minus one slash is 117, and John Shepard is, well, John Shepard, yeah. For anyone who actually expected the original Master Chief, you're out of luck, but I hope I can play it better…

The "Why Not save the _Boneguard_" thing will be explained.

About the writ of Union, see below.

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: Sigma Octanus, Laws of Anime, etc.<p>

_CSC Spirit of Fire, Orbit over Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871_

At midnight the colony had reported that a slipspace signature had been detected, far too small to warrant dispatch of an Executioner Clutch even, hence, they'd sent his ship, an effectively independently operating Fleet Carrier with a full fighter, bomber and gunship complement (not to mention Spook Spy Planes). Of course, it still had the old Destroyer _Normandy_ as a stealth op vessel and escort, but that was effectively nothing compared to what the Carrier could do, and was generally useless anyways except for stealth ops and as a comm. relay in certain scenarios.

It was now 1:35 AM, and the Covenant signals were expected at any time, all his Geminis, Restorers, Revenants and Shockers were ready for launch, many attached to the external clamps for fast deployment, with Spooks combing the space around the colony. The slipspace signals spiked with the opening of a portal almost a quarter of a planet away, and John Shepard immediately jumped closer to it, loosing his starfighters and guns at once.

Unlike in the initial engagements of the war, the Covenant ships came out of slipspace with shields online and weapons hot, immediately lashing out at the Spirit with their plasma projectors, except for the Frigates. Those concentrated with their plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers to try to take down as many of the starfighters as possible. They only got to eliminate a few dozen, even with their many plasma torpedoes working as fast as possible, before a hail of bombs peppered the Covenant shields and took out the Destroyer, which they'd focused on first. The _Spirit_ closed range with the Covenant ships and began to carve up the frigates, but when they split up, the _Spirit_ was forced to keep slugging down the frigates. The Carrier launched landing craft toward the planet before retreating to slipspace, chased by a Mavor shell that did some significant but non-disabling damage to it.

John growled as he checked Sigma Octanus IV's maps. The Covenant were landing in a city… an old-fashioned city, too small for comfortable ACU warfare, and not yet fully evacuated, fuck, that would be a problem… Still, Restorer Quad Light Lasers had enough accuracy to do the street-to-street work, and he had fifteen soldiers onboard that were mostly up the wall for something to do—the fact that the mess hall regularly turned into a very colourful Frisbee field attested partly to that—meant the choice was simple.

* * *

><p><em>Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871<em>

Grunt was perhaps enjoying himself a bit too much as he kept chucking Grunt after Grunt over the Covenant lines "You know, firebombing is a fun tactic." He said conversationally as he shoved another grenade in a Grunt's armour before flinging it over the Covenant line.

"Well, Grunt, good to see you can toss these Grunts around like that." Jack deadpanned as she kept blasting away with her guns, not her Gauss Chaingun, since it would probably cut down the buildings around them, since they weren't armoured and fielded like all Coalition structures were, "Any other comments?"

"Only regret is calling these guys Grunts, I know the job description fits them but they're so WEAK!" Grunt was saying as he tore a hole in a Grunt's methane tank and turned the hapless sentient into a rocket. "Almost shames my name…"

"Agreed…" Mirala said calmly before she lit up like a blue lantern, noting the approach of a rather large number of Brutes as they were called, focusing her mind before letting her dark side take over and do the fighting for her "MWAHAHAHAHA!" The laugh trailed off into the distance as she tore off in that direction, using a biotic Charge spearheaded by a shaped Warp field that let her literally tear through a line of Brutes, half-vaporizing them. Samara chuckled as she tracked her daughter's progress simply by the cloud of dust and body parts she was throwing up behind her on her own PIP form across town.

"That's the A-KO Phenomenon." Kasumi remarked over comms as her side of the city suffered a sudden lull in the fighting, excluding the Restorers in that area blowing apart Covenant "You think you could do that?"

Samara shook her head, never stopping her pouring of Gauss LMG rounds down-range on her side "Probably can, but don't feel like it, it's tiring, just watch…" She suddenly squinted at the brutes that were almost sort of glowing from their fatal wounds "Wait, with those Brutes over there, is that the law of phlogistatic emission at work? Law Twelve of the Laws of Anime?"

"How'd you remember that?" Kasumi asked as she shot another Brute in the head on her side of the comm. link.

"After remembering five thousand sutras of the Justicar Code by heart you'd think she'd be able to remember any 'law'." Jack pitched in.

"How'd you know there are five thousand sutras?" Samara asked the convict while they were picking off stragglers.

"The other semi-mad super-biotic on the crew told me, no offence, Samara, you might have a bit better endurance but Mirala spikes higher."

The old Asari shrugged "None taken. The Laws of Anime were the most entertaining thing I've read for a LONG time."

Mirala was back behind the barricade she, Jack and Grunt were manning in a jiffy, stumbling slightly before leaning up against the barricade and continuing to put rounds downrange "Whew, that was tiring, gotta take a moment…"

Samara smirked to Kasumi "Told you, it's tough, going probably several kilometres in a few seconds like that for an organic using their minds."

Mirala butted in on the chatter, showing her ducking behind cover and slotting in something into her helmet "I'm good, taking some of this juice Rila and Falere recommended for biotics… oh shit…" She began shivering, blue again. "EH-KAY-OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!" She yelled, charging out again.

"That was intense, maybe we should try it too." Jack commented, watching the Covenant being swept down by the biotic wake like wheat by the wind, except the Covenant weren't getting back up. She popped a juice pack too "Oh hell yeah this stuff WORKS!" She went out too.

"Is it just me, or did all the biotics just decide to pop those juice boxes?" John Shepard asked over the comm. as the city fell "silent". Well, as silent as several moving earthquake centers and the screaming of flying and dying Covenant could be. "Anyways, they're retreating to the Museum of Natural History, close in on the building, we're estimating 1500 Covenant troops still alive… the number's still dropping but… expect about a thousand inside the building, we need to figure out exactly what they're doing in there." John paused before looking down on the bridge displays "We have a problem, I'm calling in Mom's ships. A Covenant fleet is amassing near the edge of the system, we won't be able to take them on alone, be careful down there, guys. I'll keep focused on the ground while Mom deals with the Covenant Fleet."

"Well, guys." James turned to regard the fourteen-member ground crew that had assembled after the biotics had, with their juice boxes for boosters, literally mown down every single Covenant soldier outside the building in question. Buildings in the distance were still rumbling and some crumbling form the damage the biotics had done during their mad charges, after all, the Normandy Crew as they still called themselves had the toughest biotics in existence, minus Benezia, Rila, Falere, and Liara's father. With those juice boxes, well… They could probably have uprooted the Museum of Natural History if they'd felt like it. "We came to boot the Covenant off Sigma Octanus IV, to do that, we're going to kill every last one of them."

"James, I'm picking up Covenant transmissions to their fleet from the surface, they seem to be scanning something…" John started.

Hannah Shepard's face cut in with a severe snarl as her fleet jumped in "It must be that Forerunner artefact they have on display there. Nab it James, they've only recently found it and put it on display, we haven't even gotten an agreement with Sigma Octanus IV to examine it yet. Kill any Covenant you find. Kill them, KILL THEM ALL!" She bellowed dramatically before cutting the transmission.

"Does being overly dramatic run in the family?" Jedore asked after a couple of blinks.

"I would think that's quite self-evident." Tali stated "James is dramatic and effective at everything he does."

"Including or not including you?" Jack inquired, Miranda helmet-palmed at that.

"Can we get to work?" the "perfect woman" asked.

James nodded "Miranda's right, we need to get moving. Here's the plan, guys…"

* * *

><p><em>Museum of Natural History, Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871<em>

On the fifth floor, the towering window shattered with the tinkling of breaking glass even as a soldier in Aeon Medium Armour, and two extra fingers on her gloves patched to her arm nerves, barrelled in with her cloaking and active camouflage fading so she was barely visible to the two Hunters whose party she'd just crashed. Those were the reason James had sent her up here, since her flamethrower was highly efficient at getting through the gaps in their armour and at the worm colonies inside. Of course, he with his INL—enough to blow a Hunter into a crater in one shot—was following her to make sure she stayed safe. Kasumi began wreaking havoc all over the building with remote-detonated grenades and gunfire from nowhere, and the other crew members came in via various entrances to the building.

Tali took two hits from the Hunters' Fuel Rod Cannons, which put a dent in her over-shield bubble, draining it to below half strength before she opened up with the standard Purifying Flame setting of her heavy weapon. Mgalekgolo may be tough and have a big shield, but Purifying Flame was formulated to suck the air out of an area and go around obstacles via vacuum, which meant the tower shields were nearly useless as the first Hunter was slowly being burnt. The second went down to an INL shot even as the first took down Tali's over-shields before rushing her and meleeing her hard enough to severely damage her personal shields before she wedged the nozzle of her weapon between its plates and amped it up to full, torrential blast.

Needless to say, with the smell that was in the air after she finished burning the thing and she lost her shields… Tali's comment was "Next time Gardner cooks eels, I'm going to ask him to be careful not to burn them too hard."

"Well, it seems these Mgalekgolo or Hunters are the only Covenant infantry to stand a real chance against us, assuming we don't use heavy weapons…" James commented, hefting the shield of the Hunter Tali had cooked.

"They were pretty tough…"

They waited until her shields were recharged (and all the Grunts and Jackals in their line of sight were manually and painstakingly disassembled by gunfire) before proceeding. "All good?" James asked while they mowed down more Covenant troops, the crew all answered in the affirmative, though Grunt was the least descriptive, merely grunting in response. "Great, now let's work our way to the main display room where they keep the artefact…"

* * *

><p><em>3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, High Orbit over Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871_

The now full strength 3rd Executioner Swarm leapt to the attack as soon as all one hundred and sixty-eight warships arrived and deployment of slipspace jammers was complete. With Coaltiion warships, they could jump away using either Quantum (could be jammed), warp (still could be jammed but much more difficult) or Mass Effect, which was the only one that couldn't be jammed.

In shorter words, the Covenant ships in-system were trapped and forced to stand and fight as the speedier Coalition warships bored down on them. They fired as one at the lead ship, flaring the shields of the Heavy Battleship in question before it nimbly shoved itself aside before the combined fire of the Covenant ships could cut through its shields. The Super Battleship behind it followed suit and the Covenant's beam melted away into nothing as it passed the edge of the containment range and began to disintegrate.

The Covenant had gotten the first volley, but the return fire consisted of well over five hundred Heavy Microwave Laser beams lashing into the Covenant ships, whose manoeuvrability was not nearly enough to throw off the aim of the Coalition warships. The next line of ammunition that hit the Covenant line was the Coalition's own plasma beams and accelerators before the Mavor shells began thudding home (or detonating in proximity in some cases).

The Covenant returned fire, and the lighter warships of the Coaltiion line began acting as screens for the heavier ones, throwing themselves in the way to take the damage so that the bigger guns could keep on shooting. Several Battlecruisers and Escort Carriers failed under the bombardment, firing off escape Geminis as they fried and the hulks began to drift, absorbing more punishment before breaking up into chunks that kept drifting. The battle seemed almost evenly matched until the Covenant guns began turning toward closer targets, namely the starfighters that would have blotted out the stars were it not for their passive/active camouflage systems. They unleashed a torrent of bombs as plasma torpedoes began taking them down one after another, but there were too many, just too many…

Coalition capital ships had such huge numbers of Flak guns, Zealot batteries, Ravagers and Loa batteries that they could handle large numbers of fighters, but the Covenant had what were glorified guided Oblivion Cannons, and pulse lasers, and that was it. That meant though the capital ships stacked up okay between the sides with the upper hand usually going to the Covenant in the balance by a slim margin, the starfighters completely toppled the balance and broke the Coalition tray.

Well, they broke the Covenant line too, but that was beside the point as they took down the initial front of shields and obliterated several Cruisers, letting the capital ships focus on larger prey while they dealt with the smaller, easier kills, which were also better at anti-fighter duty for their durability. For example, when you could kill a ship with a thousand hits but it could punch you back fifty times, it was better to eliminate the ship that needed 500 shots (half the time) but could shoot back 30 times in that time instead, less damage to self (105 hits to self instead of 140). Hence it mathematically made sense to let the starfighters swat down the little ones while the capital ships slugged each other back and forth, dodging all the while. Of course, that was less successful for the Covenant, since their ships were larger and slower, but that was beside the point.

* * *

><p><em>Museum of Natural History, Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871<em>

The ensuing indoors battle was short, freaky, and included lots of biotics and crumbling floors/walls thanks to grenade/heavy weapon application. It also brought down a whole wing of the building when Thane, Garrus and Mordin (okay, so it was just Garrus's fault but still) got a bit careless and blew out one too many support columns/walls, but that's another story. It was the downside to fighting in a non-Coalition building, everything was just so… squishy. "How are you supposed to get a good grip?" Jacob had asked when his hand had taken a chunk out of a pillar.

When they reached the artefact, Tali was first to approach the rock, which seemed awfully familiar… it wasn't a rock, but a pod, an old pod, a very old pod.

* * *

><p><em>Location: Unknown, Time: Circa 96000 BC, 100,000 Years Before Present<em>

She hit the launch button for the pod, firing it up through the atmosphere and sending it to jump into formerly Forerunner-controlled space in the hope that someday someone would find it. The Admiral smiled sadly as the report came back through the slipspace uplink: No Signal. The comm. arrays of the Republic were still down, even so long after the Halos fired, if there was no signal whatsoever though, she'd have to go with the logical conclusion: even with their travelling nearly a hundred years into the future from the Array's firing, no one else was left. They were alone, left always to search for any remnants, vestiges of the great civilization they had once been… perhaps she could find an appropriate name for their kind other than "Forerunner". The Latin term, from a language both long dead and yet to be conceived, quaero, may well be suitable for a base. Then again, they'd built and fired the Halos basically to quarantine to Flood, stop its spread, so that there would be time to figure out a counter. Aha, she had the perfect term: Quarian, it would work well… She looked around at the underground installation one last time before sighing and moving out. Hopefully, with a relatively high technological start point, it wouldn't take too long for the race she had governed, more or less, for so many years to reach the stars again…

Little did she know that later, a global thermonuclear war would send the people she had effectively founded back in technology to an agricultural level of development. All that would remain of herself would be a badly spelt version of her moniker that her son wrote when he was only a toddler, and legends…

* * *

><p><em>Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871<em>

"Tali, you alright?" James shook her a little by the shoulder pauldrons.

She shook her head to clear it "I'm okay, just some sort of memory/vision thing, it was something about the same woman I saw before leading the fleet away form that Dyson Sphere, launching this pod from an underground installation before leaving… the same sort of underground installation it was rumoured the Migrant Fleet's dreadnoughts were found in. She thought something about naming the people she'd founded, she decided on the name 'Quarian'…"

"You mean this probe was launched from Rannoch?" James asked incredulously "This thing?"

Tali scratched the back of her helmet "I didn't necessarily mean Rannoch, but…"

Legion cut in "All 1,183 programs agree that this sounds so absurd that it almost sounds like some greater force is manipulating us."

There was a loud metallic clang as Jedore clubbed the Geth over the helmet "Don't you ever try suggesting that again, Legion, it's creepy thinking someone up there might be watching me whenever I'm showering…" and of course, that also included "fun time" with her considerable arsenal (yes, _arse_nal) of toys "If you can't contribute something non-disturbing, don't say anything!" She had him in a headlock now.

"Alert: Friendly Fire Detected, requesting assistance!" Legion yelled monotonously.

"Let him go, Jedore, it's not that implausible, even today some people believe there's some sort of deity watching us, or something out there orchestrating our actions." There was a long silence after Miranda finished "Okay, so maybe that is a bit creepy." _Yeah, if my sexual stress and the release thereof are both controlled by someone up there… hell, maybe this thought is orchestrated!_

"Don't think too much of it guys, or you'll go crazy, get the artefact so that we can get our asses out of here!" John called over the comms, interrupting the group's descent into madness (except James and Tali, who were talking rapidly to each other in private).

"I'm surprised you've said nothing yet, Samara." James commented as the crew levitated the artefact onto a hover-sled that had been dropped from the Gemini that had just landed outside.

"I didn't need to, John has that job covered." The ex-Justicar (well, she didn't quit per se, but she "secretly" planned on revolutionizing the Order after the Reaper fiasco was over) stated calmly. "Speaking of which, how's the space battle going?"

"We've shoved them back, though Mom's planning on messing with that stealth ship in orbit just a bit more… She told us not to remove this Covenant scanner just yet."

The crew started making small talk from there, now that Samara had brought up the Laws of Anime during the battle, Kasumi was free to speculate… "Does anyone think biotic coronas are part of the Law of Melee Luminescence?"

Samara appeared thoughtful "Ah yes, 'Any being displaying extremely high levels of martial arts prowess and/or violent emotions emits light in the form of a glowing aura. This aura is usually blue for 'good guys' and red for 'bad guys'. This is attributed to Good being higher in the electromagnetic spectrum than Evil.' That sounds like a nice idea…"

"Not all biotics are good though, like me, I'm a psycho." Jack grinned so broadly that Mirala leaned back a little from the other super-biotic.

"Or me for that matter, even though they generally deserve it, I still kill by sex." The Ardat-Yakshi looked down toward the floor.

Samara slapped her daughter's back with a grey and blue armoured hand "It's alright, Mirala, you were a lot more selective in your killing than I was before…" she shook her own head sadly.

* * *

><p>AN: Humorous Relief ahead, beware.

* * *

><p>"Can we move to a more cheerful topic?" Jedore asked. "Like how I never figured out how Coronas or Seraphim aircraft fly? Maybe it's the Law of Topological Aerodynamics as in the First Law of Anime Aerodynamics?"<p>

"Believe it or not, they actually are aerodynamic and their engines/handling is balanced." Miranda chipped in.

"You know, Miranda, you're part of the Law of Probable Attire." Garrus put in, he'd been introduced to the Laws by Samara a few months ago. He left out that Samara and Jack fit that too without armour, they were more likely to smash him.

While they were discussing Miranda's awfully revealing choice of clothing, and the firefight spread to Jack and Samara, Thane and Grunt had put their heads together "You have any clue what they're talking about?" Grunt asked bluntly.

Thane shook his head "No, but it seems to be amusing to them… I just hope Mordin doesn't jump in. From his shaking in muted laughter, it seems he's reading something absurdly funny."

Miranda had just drawn her heavy weapon from her Quantum Storage, intending to give Garrus a good clubbing, when Tali let out a shout that resulted in everyone in the room checking for hostiles. When they'd confirmed the area clear, they looked to the Quarian "Law of Extra-dimensional capacitance right there, though you're not obeying the Hammer Rule." Miranda's helmet doing a sweat drop light (designers added that light pattern option for kicks) for her meant Tali added "Law of Hydrostatic Emission too."

The Perfect Aeon blinked several times "If the Law of Extra-dimensional capacitance includes using this gun with unerring accuracy on Garrus, then so be it."

"This platform observes that Mordin appears to have followed the Law of Old Man Comic Relief, which states that comic relief comes in the form of a short, bald, wise-mouthed dirty old man or alien, or combination of any two of these traits."

Mordin suddenly looked up from his reading "Old Man? Hardly, the First Corollary states that if the old man is present and acting too horny, stupid, etc. there will invariably be an old woman around to whack him over the head with a frying pan or something."

"Mom, did you ever find a cooking kit in your Quantum storage?" Mirala asked her mother, seemingly unrelated to the debate currently happening.

Samara shook her head as she watched the group fool around in their leisure time, which they could afford due to the building being thoroughly cleared "No, not yet, I haven't looked for one."

Mirala produced a frying pan from her Quantum Storage "Then take this and whack Mordin over the head with it. Do it hard."

Mordin's head had just been encased in a frying pan mould (the pan was durable enough to warp that much) with a loud clang (and Tali added "The Law of Inverse Coping applied to Veetor…") when James Shepard stood up and bellowed "ENOUGH! STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS! ARE WE ALL MAD? DOES EVERYONE OBEY THE LAWS OF ANIME? NO! OTHERWISE I'D DIE OF NOSEBLEEDING!"

There was a long silence until Kasumi spoke again "Well according to certain sources i.e. Miranda, the Law of Penile Variance applied to you brothers."

"And every male in the ship!" EDI added, her blonde head without Jedore's tan distinguishing her, yes, the crew had dropped by Procyon… and Joker had nearly choked to death on his food upon seeing EDI for the first time.

There was a loud thud of James' face plate meeting his palm. John's voice plus copious amounts of laughter came over the speakers in the armour "Kasumi, EDI if you're going to go there, why don't you take into account the Law of Hentai Female Characteristics?" He said before a very large hammer came down on him.

Kelly's face appeared on the screen, smiling sweetly "Aren't you glad I like keeping a big toy hammer in my Quantum Storage?"

Everyone laughed nervously at that as John stood up "I ACTUALLY THOUGHT THAT WAS REAL KELLY! HOW DARE YOU…"

The yeoman shrugged "It's not like the battle's still happening anyways."

"Well, that's true…" John said, scratching his head only to find fake-band-aids attached in a cross fashion thanks to the other gags included with the fake hammer. "KELLY!"

"Gotta run!" Kelly said, before the camera started tracking them thanks to EDI, resulting in them witnessing the A-KO phenomenon again with Kelly running in front of an enraged John Shepard who was leaving a trail of… dust, or Smoke… something that could not possibly be present on a Coalition warship anyways, behind him. "I thought the A-KO Phenomenon was for cat-fighting Shepard, how the hell is it applying now?"

The ground crew blinked collectively "Okay, I think that was because it's been far too long since we've done anything really useful, we're all losing it from boredom, gotta get more ground-side assignments form now on…" James shivered, there was a huge chorus of assent, even EDI agreed.

* * *

><p><em>3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, High Orbit over Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871_

Hannah Shepard cackled manically as she and the other Super Battleships of the 3rd Executioner Swarm kept playing Pong with a destroyed Covenant Frigate's bow that they were grappling with their belly clamps and slinging back at the others. Thel Lodam was banging his head against the wall next to her command station, groaning, while Jenkins as always shadowed him "You're enjoying this way too much, aren't you?"

Hannah smirked so viciously Thel was tempted to crawl back into his eggshell. The Division Commander was one tough psycho when she wanted or needed to be… "Yep." She said as she slung the half of a Covenant ship at the Covenant stealth ship trapped in the cage formed by the Super Battleships. It frantically dodged out of the way at the last second, still thinking itself undetected apparently, as it was still silent running. It might have worked pretty much anywhere else, but against Omni Sensors? Not a chance in hell.

"I'm curious, couldn't we have just jumped the _Boneguard_ out before the nova event?" Thel asked the question he'd wanted to ask for a while now.

She shrugged while watching the half of a ship flying back and forth between the ships of her ECG "No, I wasn't expecting the _Boneguard_ to survive as long as it did, Jiralhanae targeting is, quite frankly, crap, agree?"

Thel nodded rapidly "You speak truth."

"Duly noted, anyhow, if I'd jumped too early the, at least the ships further out, could have had a chance to jump out. I predicted that by the time the nova event began to get triggered, the _Boneguard_ would already be thoroughly wrecked, it seems I overestimated the Jiralhanae."

"Well, I don't think they're typically THAT stupid, but they can be pretty dumb, still, don't underestimate them, that's what's important." Thel said, watching the stealth ship narrowly dodge the wreck again. It was, quite frankly, a horribly amusing sight.

"You think maybe we should just shoot them out of the sky?" One of her captains (a Seraphim, it had been a fun meeting when he met Thel Lodam) asked as his ship slung the hulk at the stealth ship again.

Hannah shook her head "No, we need to find out what they want with that data, best way to do that would be to let them go. James, John, disable the Covenant scanner, I'm lifting slipspace jamming."

* * *

><p><em>Covenant Prowler, High Orbit over Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871<em>

Usze Tahamee was sweating buckets as she gripped her seat tightly, if this was a Coalition hobby with the wrecks of destroyed warships… They REALLY should have sent the Jiralhanae instead. But NOOOO They had to get the safe deployments while Usze, N'tho and Kip were out here dodging half a damned frigate that was being slung around like it was a tennis game. The game was said to have come form the Forerunners and amazingly she'd actually seen what looked like a tennis field on a human planet before but that was beside the point. Then again, maybe she was questioning the Prophets because Supreme Commander Thel Vadamee had specifically stated quite simply that the Retribution Detachment, led by Shipmaster Rtas Vadumee, was "Supposed to be the biggest groups of cynics in the Covenant Fleet, able to do jobs with actual THOUGHT and not just blindly charging into things."

Sadly, that meant they were so efficient that other fleets often asked to borrow crew members, though most tended to come back healthy due to actually using their cynicism and brains. The Unggoy of the Retribution Detachment (which was only Sangheili, Unggoy and Mgalekgolo) were lucky though in that they weren't requisitioned due to their independent thought patterns being too much for most commanders to handle. They had been inducted by the preceding Supreme Commander after the Unggoy Rebellions for being so tenacious. Of course the male had gotten into some trouble with the Hierarchs but they let it be in the end.

As for anyone who wondered, and most did upon entering the Fleet of Particular Justice, about the similarity of the names of the top two ranking males, well… Vadum and Vadam were neighbouring states founded when twin brothers disagreed on how to spell the family name. The pronunciation had originally been somewhere in between but then diverged. Still the two states were close and the most influential on Sanghelios, the nearby state of Fulsam also having close ties with them. The Taham clan was not nearly so influential but was no less famous with its merchandising and power in commerce.

As for Usze's friends, besides all three breathing a long sigh of relief as they finally could jump to slipspace and get out of there, Kip had never told anyone his family name, while N'tho's clan was considered reactionary and shunned by many for keeping most males in housekeeping duties and taking care of the children instead of going out to work. Yeah, they'd exploited the loophole in the Writ of Union that any position was a station, after all, "According to our station, all without exception" only meant that you should not be unemployed for extended periods of time. Hence being househusbands was a station in the Sraom clan, and it was still permissible.

As for herself, Usze was not technically born of the Taham clan, as her biological father was a swordsman, but her father had accepted her as one of his own anyways. Yes, it was absurdly unusual among species to have power be matriarchal for so long but names generally patriarchal, but there it was, perhaps a relic from the Forerunners?

* * *

><p><em>CSC Spirit of Fire, over Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871<em>

"Well that was a nice trip." Thane remarked "It has been a while since our last expedition, hasn't it?"

"Agreed, it was fun while it lasted." Garrus was still sporting a wide grin as he glanced toward Grunt, trying to pretend nothing happened when they were waiting around.

"Those Covenant were really shitty fighters, or at least their tech was shitty." Mirala chimed in, her helmet lights also smirking widely, looking at Grunt.

Grunt finally lost it when people started bursting into laughter "SHUT UP!" He bellowed, shaking his fist and incidentally causing the object attached to the side of his helmet to wobble a bit.

Kasumi smirked "Grunt, you got to admit, being attacked by a Drone with a toilet plunger says something." The Krogan didn't notice the plunger attached to the side of his helmet until very recently…

The Krogan growled viciously before roaring "JAMES SHEPARD, IF YOU MAKE ME CRAWL INTO A BUILDING VIA A TRASH CHUTE/SEWER AGAIN I SWEAR THERE WILL NOT BE ENOUGH OF YOU LEFT TO FILL UP YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S VAG—" He was abruptly cut off when Tali finished adjusting his armour settings so the codpiece fell to the ground, personal shields deactivating, and smashed a five-fingered (two prosthetic) fist into his lower regions. His optics seemed to almost bulge before he toppled with a resounding crash, leaving the shuttle silent temporarily, before Tali looked at her prosthetic fingers and hit the controls to re-absorb them, as well as the foot/boot alterations that had been made to disguise her as human.

"If you threaten James again, there will not be enough of you left to register under a microscope, do you understand me?" The Quarian growled menacingly, before she thought of something else "Oh, and for the record, Grunt, I'm not that loose, and I won't ever be that loose, however, if you wish, I could help loosen your stool with this…" She hoisted her flamethrower menacingly, her meaning perfectly clear. There was a long silence before a soft whimper of pain came from the fallen Krogan. "What did you say?" She yanked the Krogan up with one armoured hand and glared at him.

No one expected Grunt to sound like he did "Okay, okay, I surrender, I'm sorry!" He squealed, before Tali smirked and dropped him.

"That's better, now, what's your grievance?" Tali asked calmly.

"To be honest, I still smell like shit because someone." Grunt inserted a dirty glare at Legion, who was twiddling his thumbs while whistling "decided to adjust the settings of my armour to not auto-clean the exterior, and I forgot to check it until someone" insert another dirty glare, at Jedore this time "told me a few minutes ago. And I didn't notice the plunger stuck to my helmet until when I was walking into this Gemini, alright?"

"Alright, why don't you change the settings on your armour back to what they were then?" Mirala asked.

"What do you think I've been doing…" the plunger vanished, reclaimed to his inventory to be wielded against some unfortunate toilet sometime in the future "Ah, there we go, much better now…" The crew was more or less silent after that point.

Tali opened a private conversation with James "James, I'd have though you would have appreciated the Laws of Anime… at least a couple of them." She pouted at him with her dark purple lips and blinked her silver, slightly glowing eyes slowly.

"Which ones?" He asked.

She smirked and her eyelids drooped slightly "Law of Hentai Female Characteristics and Law of Vaginal Variance, of course."

James shifted a bit "Oh well, okay, yeah, I do appreciate your body too, I would think that was obvious with the amount of time we spend on it at night…"

She nodded approvingly inside her helmet, having locked it in place "That's the right answer."

* * *

><p><em>3<em>_rd__ Executioner Swarm, High Orbit over Sigma Octanus IV, November 25, 3871_

"Well, they dared stick a probe on us when we oh-so-kindly stopped playing Pong with them in the middle?" Hannah growled "We'll show them… guys, jump to these coordinates, we'll go from there." Said coordinates were in the middle of nothing, and it was also where she was doing to drop her current flagship for a while. "Next thing we'll lead them to is going to be Reach."

The crew gasped, Reach was one of the ultra-fortified border worlds of the UEF-Cybran border, which had by treaty, like the other major borders, been fortified to serve as "Last Stand" lines in the event of invasion. Reach wasn't just one of those worlds, it was _the_ most fortified, other than the core worlds of the various factions, in the entire Coalition. "But…" there was a rising tidal wave of protest before Hannah held up a hand, the fleet instantly falling silent.

"We'll take a couple months before that though, after all, we're going to make some preparations and wait for the planned re-classification to set in before we take them to Reach. That's why we'll be more or less staying out here for now…"

Of course, in the next month-plus of waiting, they blew up a couple Covenant fleets that tried to recon their area, but that was beside the point. The re-classification came, and needless to say, it was rather stunning. For example, Executioner Swarms were re-classed as Recon Swarms.

* * *

><p>AN: IMPORTANT TECHNICAL INFORMATION AHEAD!

* * *

><p>RECLASSIFICATION OF COALITION FLEET VESSELS – January 1, 3872<p>

For clarity, ship classes will sometimes be termed after the third reclassification *Current Name, Original Name* (ex. "3872 Mini Gantry, 3860 Ship Gantry")

Format: *Old Class Name* = *New Class Name*

3860 Corvette = 3872 Light Patrol Boat

3860 Frigate = 3872 Patrol Boat

3860 Destroyer = 3872 Gunboat

3860 Light Cruiser = 3872 Light Corvette

3860 Heavy Cruiser = 3872 Heavy Corvette

3860 Escort Carrier = 3872 Air Support Boat

3860 Battlecruiser = 3872 Light Frigate

3860 Battleship = 3872 Heavy Frigate

3860 Fleet Carrier = 3872 Patrol Carrier

3860 Heavy Battleship = 3872 Light Destroyer

3860 Super Battleship = 3872 Light Cruiser

* * *

><p>FLEET ORGANIZATION CHANGES – January 1, 3872<p>

The original Hunter Squadron has been totally phased out.

Executioner Swarms are now Recon Swarms, with Recon Command Groups and Recon Clutches. A standard Recon Clutch is still 4 3872 Heavy Frigates, 4 3872 Patrol Carriers, 8 3872 Light Frigates and 8 3872 Air Support Boats. An RCG is four 3872 Light Cruisers and eight 3872 Light Destroyers. The total of four Recon Clutches and a Recon Command Group is still 108 vessels, the exact same as an Executioner Swarm was before.

More changes are expected as 3872 Heavy Destroyers, Heavy Cruisers, Escort Carriers, Pocket Battleships, Fleet Carriers, Battleships and Super Carriers are to be fielded still, according to plans.

* * *

><p>AN: Does anyone else feel sorry for the Covenant? Their one major chip, the Super Carrier, can, if caught off-guard, be taken down with one YO hit and some follow-up. Still, we can expect a Super Carrier vs. Reaper 1v1 match sooner or later, and obviously the 27 km will beat the 10-12 km.

The lighter ship classes still exist for the purposes of stealthy and Council space ops. It would be rather alarming if 108 ships, all around 1000 m length, suddenly appeared in a Council system on a recon run. Sure, the Council's been frantically bringing what was effectively a mothball fleet (they hadn't had a real space war for a long, long time) into the newest tech, but still it would be alarming to ANYONE.

As for what juice we're talking about, well, it's something many would be familiar with, the same stuff Falere accidentally drank, etc…

GO SEE MY NEW DEVIANTART WORK PLEASE (AND COMMENT!), AND REVIEW!


	11. Reach and Flexibility

A/N: Oh boy, here comes Reach…

The Covenant isn't as screwed as you'd think, before the reclassification we had for a typical fleet action 108 Coalition ships vs. around 50 Covenant ships. If the Covenant fleet is Cruisers/Destroyers we get around 30 Coalition ships lost, if they're assorted capital ships we have around 70 Coalition warships lost for 50 Covenant ships. The main reason the Coalition is being pushed back is that they let themselves be pushed back, the secondary reason is that whenever Super Carriers appear on the field and YOs are not readily available (as in enough to overwhelm their Plasma Projector aka SMD coverage), losses can reach up to a staggering 20:1 ratio, WITHOUT KILLING THE SUPER CARRIER! And also, orbital defences have yet to be re-classed.

Lots of ships can go 1v1 vs. a Reaper; the newer models of Protoss Mothership could pull it off for example (the Tal'darim one was an outdated version, plus the Hyperion was outfitted well beyond what used to be BC capacity, especially in the secondary weapons). The Forerunner ships definitely could (there was a reason the Reapers had to employ the Flood…), and Covenant Super Carriers can stack up 1v2 if need be. Hell, with all the upgrades recently applied, the new Destiny Ascension could do it. The only faction without ships able to stack up 1v1 vs. Reapers, and which won't get any warships able to do so, is the Coalition, ironic, since they're the galactic superpower most likely to be able to smash the beasts down.

As for SupCom 2 stuff, you'll find some more obscure stuff here, look carefully. Oh, and to Anon who talked about a Super-Mavor defence platform, well, remember that same thing that there's only one of outside the Coalition? The one hovering over Palaven? The fact that there's a treaty on it, well… The Covenant is going to do a LOT of bending (and buckling) these couple days. I guess they don't have flexibility after all…

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: Reach and Flexibility<p>

"How the flying fuck did you come to the conclusion that we might not have been detected?" Kip asked Usze incredulously.

"Well, if they'd detected us, why didn't they just blow us up?" The female (no one figured it out yet) crossed her arms over her chest in irritation.

"If they didn't detect us, how were they so damned close every time they slung that half a frigate at us?" Kip asked.

"If they did detect us, they would have done more work to make sure we would have been hit! We've seen how they fight, they blow up everything Covenant that is not directly running away and even some things that are! We were NOT running away at the time!" Usze barked back, going down to his face to glare him down, they were currently headed homeward, and the ship was on autopilot, hence why they weren't busy.

"How about you both have a point? Let's leave it at that…" N'tho suggested. The two, Usze noticeably towering over the smaller male, breathed harshly into one another's faces for a moment more before chuckling and settling back in their seats.

"I guess that tension got to us, didn't it, Kip?" Usze said, chuckling at how they'd nearly come to blows over nothing.

"You're telling me! It sure got to these seats alright…" Kip joked, prodding Usze's seat armrests, which had accrued dents from her death-grip. N'tho's also had small dents, though much smaller than Usze's "You know, you guys are unusually strong for males, got something you're not telling me about?"

N'tho and Usze waved him off dismissively "Nah…"

N'tho added "You need to get bigger, Kip, remember, ladies like big, strong but still sufficiently submissive males for their mates! And you should learn to compromise better if you want to get a good female to take you as her husband." He though for a moment "You too Usze, women don't like overly argumentative males. I mean sure possessiveness is sometimes considered cute but often they prefer to be the possessive ones and don't like clingy males."

Usze didn't retort, merely snorted. _N'tho, you'd think that being female I'd know what females like, in other words, you might as well tell the guy to pretend to be you or something… what the hell am I thinking?_ Her eyes widened slightly behind her helmet at the thought, it was true that she'd found N'tho to be likeable and such, but never before had she thought about it so specifically.

Kip didn't notice, but her best friend did "Something wrong?"

"Nope, it's nothing, just thinking back to that slingshot game they played with us stuck in the middle." She made up a lame excuse that actually made sense.

"I would be scared too thinking back on it, I mean, so close, SO close…" N'tho was shivering when a sharp clang and jerk of his helmet brought him back to reality.

_Aw he's so cute sometimes when he pretends to be a big baby like that…_ "N'tho?" She asked as she slapped the side of his helmet gently.

"Sorry, back to reality." N'tho grinned sheepishly.

"It's about time." Kip commented dryly.

Usze ignored him "You do realize females like males with good self-confidence but not a big ego?"

"Alright, if you're such a master, then why don't you teach me?"

Usze had the distinct feeling as she agreed and began to type notes for him to read later along with talking on a private comm. channel that she was digging a hole for herself, but she shook the feeling off. It didn't matter, did it? Besides, the only reason she'd been allowed in the military was because she was sterile due to a disease in her childhood that did some damage plus a later injury from fighting off a thief twice her size (she was still young then) with only a kitchen knife on her side. Sterile Sangheili were supposed to help their fertile friends reproduce as much as they could, right? Giving N'tho pointers was to help Him, not her, right?

* * *

><p><em>3<em>_rd__ Recon Swarm, High Orbit over Reach, January 15, 3872_

"We knew this day would come! The Covenant have finally found us, found Reach!" Hannah Shepard's powerful voice rose from every speaker in the system. "They have found the greatest trap of their history. They will try to take this planet, lose millions, and when Reach is finished rolling over them—and roll over them we will— The Coalition shall sit back, and laugh our collective asses off!" She cut the channel.

"Am I included in that bunch laughing our asses off? I probably will be laughing after all…" Thel Lodam asked from his seat in the bridge.

"Yeah, you're invited, pity though, so many lives are about to be wasted…" Hannah looked down at the deck for a moment "Sorry Thel that we shall kill so many of your people, but we shall still do what we must."

Lodam shook his head "We Sangheili are not as irrational as the Jiralhanae, I can understand, were it my people being hunted like this, well…" He shrugged, ending the conversation for now.

Hannah nodded in response "Talk later, Lodam." She turned back to her console. "John, here's your crew's cue, go to this comm. outpost and eliminate every Sangheili Zealot you find there, plus their support troops."

"Will do ma'am, they'd better not be as tough as Protoss Zealots…" her son mumbled the last part before cutting the link. She smirked, ideally, the newly-issued plasma bayonets would see them through even if it came to hand-to-hand, since plasma blades were ineffective at best against anything with structural fields or Coalition shielding. Those distributed incoming energy, up to a certain point, over the entire surface, a plasma blade would make it just a big radiator and was not much more than the sun shining down on the unit's surface. Needless to say, that would be harmless.

Hannah Shepard went back to ensuring everything was ready to go, including the two YO missiles she had prepped in the launcher. "Initiate Operation: Winter Storm, Authorization Code Havoc-Alpha-Nero-Nero-Alpha-Havoc." It was her call-sign, different form the standard ones, just like the other Elite Four members and Commanders In Chief had. It was also her name, but that was beside the point.

"Winter Contingency Declared, all units are fully active. Overriding control routed to Division Commander Hannah Shepard and Supreme Seraphim Commander Seth-Thauum." A familiar voice called over the comms.

"Seth is here, Dostya?" Hannah asked.

Dostya nodded on the screen "He is indeed, I'll just be coordinating fleet reinforcements as they become available, drag the battle out a bit, we want the Covenant to land as many troops as possible, then to bleed them, keep bleeding them, if that Elite you got still alive?"

"Yeah, Thel has been a great help." She'd informed him before that he would be an excellent ambassador when the war was over, and he'd been okay with it after studying all the Forerunner artefact data the Coalition had. Of course, he had said something about her claim to lure the Covenant in at Viperidae most likely correct, but that was beside the point.

"Call him over." The Sangheili wandered over at Hannah's beckoning and Dostya stated bluntly "Listen, Lodam, if you don't want to witness this curb-stomp feel free to ask Hannah for a shuttle out of here. I wouldn't want to watch the Seven Hand Node getting massacred unless I was doing the killing… well, back then I did do it myself, but that's beside the point."

"No, I will stay, and provide assistance as I am able." Lodam had by this time been thoroughly convinced that the war was wrong and had to be stopped, and knew that the fastest way to gain the respect of his kind and bring them to the negotiation table was to, simply put, give them a thorough ass-kicking.

* * *

><p><em>Fake Listening Post One, Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

"Feet first into hell!" John shouted the classic , jumping to the ground over three hundred meters below and landing with only a light thud as his armour's QP Pack auto-fired, coupled with his inertial adjustors, he managed to hit the ground so gently he barely felt it. "Everyone, active stealth and camo, we can't take any risks." Sure it would slow shield recharge somewhat but it was worth it. Elite Zealots had plasma blades, and while those were almost useful on shields, against fields… You might as well try using a matchstick. Actually, throwing rocks might work better since the fields wouldn't activate with such small impacts.

"Charge first into hell, you mean!" Jack shouted, the biotics popping their glorified stim packs (Named… some misspelling of apple that they weren't about to try pronouncing… juice boxes) before disappearing into the installation, the air not even rippling as their active camo hid them completely, much like Protoss Dark Templar cloaking.

"Leave some for us!" Jacob called, boosting after them, trying to catch up.

"Sorry." Miranda said rather calmly "Why don't you pop your own boxes?"

"I didn't learn how to Charge that's why!" Jacob growled, looking at Thane, he added "Thane didn't either."

"Sorry, first come first serve." Jack cackled as she gave one unsuspecting Elite—surprisingly not a Zealot—a nice, hard, mentally charged uppercut that broke through his shields and helmet seals before tearing his head off and sending it flying into the ceiling. The three Shockwaves she threw down immediately thereafter, well… They never saw her coming.

The other biotics were similarly leaving a wake of bodies for the other to lament over as they blazed invisibly through the fake facility, cutting down the Covenant lawn-mower style. "I think this is just making life boring." Grunt grumbled as they shot the stragglers that somehow survived (generally due to too many bodies cushioning/shielding them) jut to make sure.

"Get the fuck up so I can kill you again!" Jedore snarled, kicking a corpse onto its back and shooting it a couple more times for that satisfying spraying of body fragments. "You'd think they'd leave something for us, but no…"

"Well we're running out of juice, literally in the case of our first boxes, so you guys better get up here while we chew the rest of our way through this facility." Mirala chimed in as she set of a chain reaction of Unggoy.

"We're on it…" John confirmed as they began to run. Legendary Commander T'Soni's main import (from the world she was rumoured to be from, Earth II) as far as biotics and other psychics was concerned had been the plants whose fruit went into that juice, but it had its limitations, ten power uses and that was about it, depending on user strength. He suddenly thought of something, if Liara was given some, could she snap a Thunderhead T1 Frigate (naval variety) in half?

* * *

><p><em>Continent Three ("Viery Territory"), Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

It was the third-largest continent, well, more of a gigantic peninsula but still… Continent Three's southern peninsula was currently playing host to many, MANY Covenant. They even had a Super Carrier "hidden" under primitive stealth emitters that didn't hide the ship from anything whatsoever. Hannah was handling the offensive side of things and Seth everything else, which meant the feisty Cybran Division Commander had to make her Mavors NOT open fire on the Covenant camp. If they did they'd scare off the Super Carrier before she could adequately butcher the ground forces to her content. The Covenant beachhead had what were essentially Tier 1 AA guns ringing it, if she wanted, she could take one CZAR, and run around the area roasting every AA gun before they could kill the flying carrier. Oh, the Covenant had a few corvettes too, but they were no biggie… not once she would bring in Ahwassas and other higher-end units…

The Covenant was attacking one of her largest firebases and staging areas, which she called Sword Base, foolish… since it was guarding the pass that made the main exit to the peninsula and was difficult to flank (due to other, smaller firebases guarding the other passes). Sure, they were dropping off units behind it but even the relatively weak defence line in the rear would be more than enough to handle them. The dozens of Ravagers at the front line and the Miasma-class T2 Artillery Installations handled the Covenant offensive with absurd ease. The TML-4's were, along with the Myrmidons in the area, launching a fusillade of missiles at the corvette supporting the attack. She should have used Transcenders and Flayers instead, since although Flayer missiles were weaker there were slightly more of them, and each was adequate for a Covenant small-craft of any sort anyways. Transcenders fired the much more powerful Zealot missiles in smaller numbers, much more effective against mid-sized ships like Corvettes. The Myrmidon was in between them and good for balanced fighting and adaptability, but what was extra space good for if not to build on? Anyhow, the Myrmidons were giving the Corvette's shields a steady pummelling with their sheer numbers of Nanite Missiles, over a hundred per wave. Electron Flak from the many Burst Masters around were swatting down everything the Covenant had in the air, even if it didn't need swatting.

The "did not need swatting" group included but was not limited to: flying Wraith Mortar Tanks, Ghost Recon Vehicles, body parts, and occasional Scarab legs (being hit by a Miasma was a death sentence). After all, when over a dozen Ravagers made up the frontal line, the frontal attack the Covenant was pulling was, to be blunt, stupid. Then again, according to Thel Lodam, it wasn't unusual for Jiralhanae (ID-ed by their corpses) to pull stupid tactics, though why the hell they were deployed first he had not a clue, since most covert operations tended to use Sangheili instead. Still, the Covenant hadn't quite given themselves away, since Reach's near-nonexistent civilian presence had been evacuated in preparation for the trap to be sprung anyways and thus no "major population centers" had been attacked yet, such attacks were typical of the undisciplined Brute offensives.

The Corvette was dealing decent damage with its Plasma Torpedoes, smashing against the shields of the base to some actual effect, but it wasn't much, and the four overlapping Athanuhthes could recharge fast enough to handle the bombardment. The plasma Autocannons the Corvette had were startlingly similar to Losaare Autocannons, perhaps it was stolen Seraphim tech left over from the last Reaper invasion? Or perhaps Prothean technology, which partly ripped off (and was ripped off by) the Seraphim? It didn't matter anyways, since Coalition aircraft could handle it, at least for a while…

After a lot of help from the Miasmas and the few ancient Absolver T3 Shield Disruptors which were still hanging around Reach, and which were surprisingly effective, the Corvette's shield began to flicker with every hit. The TML-4s' Loa Tactical Missiles, the most powerful version of said type of missiles, finally broke through and started peppering the hull of the Corvette, increasing their cycling rate to kill the sucker as fast as possible. The structure was different from all other Tactical Missile Launchers in that instead of one silo barrel it had four barrels that could be rotated to fire one after another. It meant almost four times the firing rate of a typical launcher, though it was a bit more fragile and cost more energy to function. The simple fact that it split on being hit with TMD fire made most commanders absolutely adore it… unless the other side had Loyalists deployed, in that case, Aloha or Serpentine launchers were typically preferable, as bounced missiles were easier to deal with.

Still, they flayed away at the fleeing corvette's armour, and when it seemed they would not be enough, Hannah Shepard gave one Mavor in her main base the "Fire here" command on that target. The four hundred meter barrel traversed around a little bit before the top 250 or so meters recoiled as the huge gun fired its gigantic, heavy slug, having calculated target trajectory and expected flight time and all those things already, before firing the slug that would, near the end of its flight, be under its own guidance anyways to adjust for unforeseen changes in air flow. Then she ordered it to cease fire, and so it did.

Needless to say, without shields up, the relatively small Covenant ship didn't stand a chance as the six thousand ton slug came crashing into it at six kilometres per second, just short of orbital velocity. (A/N: Note that the smallest MAC gun is a 600 ton 30 km/s slug, hence 2.5 times the kinetic energy of a Mavor shell, but…) Before it had torn all the way through, it set off the minute amount of antimatter inside (amount of damage point equivalents limited by treaty, though that did not include point re-scaling projects) and turned the Corvette into a gigantic fragmentation grenade.

That Covenant attack wave was thoroughly broken by the time the Corvette finished littering the ground with scorched metal bits. Hannah didn't bother chasing them beyond a few long-range Miasma shells, relying on the loaded corrosion/delayed release formula to deal damage over time to the Covenant walking by. Coalition units could see the stuff, but for the Covenant it was walking into sudden vaporization. Needless to say, that resulted in a huge pile-up of a traffic jam and even more Miasma shells crashing down on the piled-up Covenant vehicles. Very few managed to escape with their lives. If it was Sangheili units, Hannah would have let them go, but with the brutality typically displayed by Jiralhanae according to intercepted transmissions…

The next morning dawned bright and early, and Seth, having taken night shift, reported that the Covenant still thought themselves undetected… despite all the looming gun barrels far over the horizon waiting to dump hell on them. Of course, not two hours after she took over controls, the Covenant decided to launch offensives across the abandoned civilian centers in the peninsula. Each was defended by at least one Athanuhthe, a few Triads and Oblivions plus at least one Miasma, lots of Erupters and of course solid defence walls and a small patrolling army. The Kennel-class Engineering stations and Mass/Energy generation/storage was also included for self-sustaining capability.

"We are now under attack across the Viery Territory, including the fake anti-orbital guns we've put up. As per the Winter Contingency, we are smashing them on every front and counterattacking along the plains." Hannah announced. Seth had told her that he had the perfect battle group assembled for her to take on the offensive. Needless to say, when she looked, she laughed. "Two of ours and a thousand of theirs, not counting that Super Carrier we're picking up on Radar? I feel sorry for the Covenant." She chuckled as she dragged the selection box around the lone Monkeylord and its partnering Soul Ripper on the east end of the central plains of the peninsula. "Let's move out!" She cried as she put them on an attack-move command across the plains, after mounting an Athanah and two Bangers on the Soul Ripper's three hard-points. Those unfortunately couldn't take weights over 2000 tons and so Othuums, Harbingers, Bricks and Percivals weren't options, but the Bangers would provide a significant boost to its anti-air capabilities. If she'd been going for an anti-capital strike she would have gone for Absolvers to counter shields. After all, she didn't go to all that explaining to the other top-level commanders last night for nothing… Absolvers were now once again part of the Coalition arsenal.

Still, it would do, her Monkeylord was loaded out with a single Serenity, an Athanah and a Loyalist for countering any/all missiles (as well as handling smaller targets or close by targets thanks to the grenade launcher). They were ready to get a move on now… So were the Covenant if the huge number of small contact incoming on her Radar was any indication. The Covenant had such poor passive stealth that her Omni sensor on the far side of the peninsula could pick up every damned thing in their base, even those Spires that provided cloaking for the Super Carrier!

Regardless, well over a thousand Covenant vehicles, making up the first wave, started dying inexplicably as the effectively invisible (or active camo-ed) Disintegrator Pulse Lasers, Heavy Electron Bolters and Iridium Rocket Packs mowed down on them from an unknown source. The Banshees started falling in droves and even the Seraphs quickly fell prey to gigantic bursts of electrons and the resulting flak-like effects. No one had a clue as to where the attacks were coming from until the formation of aircraft overhead abruptly opened up with dozens of collisions and aircraft being scrapped as something invisible, something absolutely huge, ploughed through the core of the formation. Still, not even counting the huge splattering splotches of destruction blasting down on them from whatever had just ploughed through their fliers, there were other blast zones and craters erupting out of nowhere.

If they were more superstitious, they probably would have thought it to be the work of Gods, but alas, no. The ground ahead of them began to flash-boil in a sweeping arc, the liquefied silicates not even having time to move down into the still-solid ground beneath before being vaporized. Unlike plasma projectors, which used a narrow drill beam before letting containment loose and thus melting deep with each pulse, it seemed to be a continuous beam, and quite simply put there was a sort of unified retreat, the Covenant formation more or less about-facing before running like hell.

The Monkeylord, under active camouflage, raised its massive Heavy Microwave Laser from full depression and fired off into the distance, drawing a box around the Covenant and preventing them from fleeing before spiralling the box inward, stopping just before it would have melted the whole area because the Soul Ripper had pulled the job off before it could. Hannah Shepard cackled savagely as she saw the estimated kill count, which was in the tens of thousands after obliterating that armoured division with absurd ease. Of course, the massive splash damage of Soul Ripper munitions may have had something to do with it… as well as the corralling via a Monkeylord moving at 216 km/h speed (with the relevant upgrade, they added another 10 meters per second to the original 50 m/s) encircling the Covenant completely.

The Covenant vehicles wouldn't be really bad… when they could see their enemy, the problem was that the Wraith mortar tanks only started making the shields flare too late, they didn't even get to take the bubbles down, let alone the war machines protected by the bubbles, before all being annihilated by twinkling Heavy Electron Bolter, Sonance Artillery, Disintegrator Pulse Laser, Iridium Rocket Pack or Heavy Microwave Laser fire. The fact that radio jamming had been established by the Electron Bolters' side-effect (EMP) didn't help one bit, since slipspace communicators, being more complicated and breakdown-prone, were not completely standard issue among regular soldiers.

The Monkeylord continued on its merry way toward the stealth emitter, though the Serenity's range was greatly reduced when on a hard-point, due to the Experimental's motions, it could have probably scored a hit within a few shots. It was the only downside of using Serenity instead of a Demolisher, Trebuchet, or the Seraphim T3 Heavy Artillery Bot, since the others deployed stabilisers to fire and could hence chuck rounds with better success when on top of a moving object. Though the Trebuchet, the Cybran one, was still rather inaccurate, it actually did better than the Serenity when on a moving hard-point. If the Monkeylord had stopped, they could probably kill the spire, even with the shield in place, within a few minutes of long range Serenity fire, because if the Experimental was stationary the Serenity had its usual pin-point accuracy.

Hannah could have sent the Soul Ripper but that would mean probably running into the Super Carrier hovering low over the site and making the Covenant panic. Upon thinking for a moment she decided to designate the Spire as "Do Not Assail" before marching the Monkeylord onward toward the Covenant base, suddenly wishing she'd brought a CZAR to stage Trebuchet T3 Heavy Mobile Artilleries off of instead of a Soul Ripper, despite the anti-ground weapons being less effective against swarms. It was a joke of a battle, the Monkeylord standing outside and wiping out everything that tried to shoot back. Scarabs actually started registering damage on the Experimental, in much the fashion that Percivals would be registering damage, but their durability was nowhere near Percivals. Sure, back in the day it wasn't unusual to see Monkeylords taken down by groups of Percivals, but that was mostly because the Armoured Assault Bots were tough enough to stand two seconds of fire. The Scarabs, on the other hand, most certainly were not, succumbing after under a second each. There weren't that many of them, so it wasn't going to be an issue.

The Loyalist secured in its hard-point (dropping units into hard-points required the use of a transport other than hovering units, which could fly high enough to pull it off) was mowing down three Wraiths with every three-pulse burst of its Disintegrator Pulse Laser while the Electron Bolter and Iridium Grenade Launcher it sported happily mowed away at the Covenant, using the Grenade Launcher's mortar-like ability to nail those that were too close for the Monkeylord's own formidable guns and too small to be worth a stomp from one of the once-correctly-named Spiderbot's six legs. Back when the design was first conceived, the Mark One had eight legs, and since then, despite many changes and revolutions of design, the towering walker with more than four legs and a large gun barrel on the top would forever be known as the Monkeylord Experimental Spiderbot. Way back then, the design had truly been experimental in that it required engineers to follow to perform field repairs all the time. It wasn't until the time of a certain Legendary Commander (and yes, that was her actual title) that the design was shaved down to six legs and the linear plasma-lobbing weapon was replaced with a traversing, continuous beam particle cannon. Later, that weapon would be swapped out for the Heavy Microwave Laser that dominated the unit's arsenal now.

After adequately racking up satisfying kills i.e. about a hundred thousand, on the Covenant base, Hannah pulled both units back. Needless to say, Covenant comm. chatter turned to utter confusion from the panic it had been but moments ago, until…

Salvation shells, fired at the lowest angle the guns were capable of, soared in beneath the hulk of the Super Carrier and peppered the Covenant base with a rain of bomblets, not that the ones on the receiving end thought of them as bomblets. In contrast to the ones deployed during the Turian War, these were at full power and much more damaging, reducing their impact areas into pools of glass many meters deep. After all, SOMETHING had to distract the Super Carrier or at least pin it in place, so…

Several CZARs moved into position over the Super Carrier, strategically each shielding a few of the dorsal plasma projectors from the trajectories of the missiles that would… "STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" Computers all over Reach droned as two silos each vomited forth a single, gargantuan missile that moved quickly and stealthily into the atmosphere.

The Covenant managed to detect the warheads inbound, and shifted their plasma projectors skyward, they would have been in time but for the fact that the CZARs blocked enough of their shots (three shots or even four obstructed per fully upgraded and Athanah-loaded CZAR) for each Yolona Oss missile to only take one hit to its structural fields and hence keep flying. Sure, she was risking starting a tectonic rift, but the Super Carrier was too much of a risk for a fleet engagement, it was simply too strong, too strong… Nothing short of strategic missiles could put a real dent in the shields fast enough to get less than 20 to 1 loss ratios not even counting attempts to kill the things… There would surely be tsunamis simply because she'd aimed one near the bow, hanging off the north end of the peninsula over the sea, and one near the stern, hanging off the south end of the narrow (relatively) western tip of the peninsula, but Hannah hoped she didn't crack tectonic plates. It had happened several times near the end of the Seraphim War when the trapped Imperium commanders had become desperate enough to use Scorched Earth tactics, she didn't want to cause it.

The twin explosions and the rippling tidal waves detected, which would smash up against the coast all along that ocean of Reach within the next few hours, told her she succeeded. Sure, it would wash away anything not secured with structural fields for several kilometres inland along the bay to the peninsula's north, but that was no matter as the twenty-seven-kilometre, well, a lot less than that now, ship smashed down and crushed the Stealth Emitters that had been supposed to conceal it, breaking its spine and hull wide open along the jagged peaks of the area, pulverizing hundreds of thousands of tons of stone in the process as the big purple wreck started tearing itself apart with explosions, both the bow and stern utterly blown away, vaporized. It would be an ecological disaster to clean up, but she already had containment fields deployed around the peninsula ready to engage and clean up contaminants.

The Coalition's wars were generally very environmentally friendly, because they were fighting for planets they'd have to live on later, but against Covenant warships, well, things were a lot dirtier than typical ACU warfare or even fleet actions, not that the latter had happened much since the original Seraphim Contact War, until the Turian War that is. ACU blitzes were so unpredictable and speedy that fleets would be left behind. Even now, ferrying units down to the surface was impractical, and even bombardment was no good since the rounds would lose accuracy due to targeting interference from the targets anyways, the only thing a fleet could provide effectively was air units, and Marines for the old definition of urban combat.

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit, Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

"Slipspace Apertures opening outside our jamming radii!" Seth, who had not gone to bed in favour of watching the fight, shouted in alarm.

"As expected, all orbital defences engage, cull weakest prioritization, Yolona Oss Stations swarm any Super or Assault Carriers you see, otherwise keep silent until I say so." Hannah barked intently before going back to check on how the tsunami was spreading, sure enough, the bay to the north was having its coast thoroughly swept clear. She sighed, oh well, they could repair it later, what was more worrying was the plasma leaking… The explosion lighting up her screen meant it already finished escaping… from the Super Carrier's wreckage. Who knew what sort of hazardous materials the Covenant used for it? Best to activate the containment fields, besides, the whole area was more or less glassed already anyways, and that part of the peninsula would always look like a pair of craters had been etched in it anyhow now, not that Reach hadn't been a heavily bombarded young planet to begin with.

She went back to monitoring the space battle. The Coalition had amassed over three thousand orbital defence stations of various classes and seven hundred capital ships to defend the area. That included the 3872 Mini Gantries (3860 Ship Gantries) which, not even counting their SMD capability, could withstand a single Yolona Oss hit without being destroyed, given full shields and fields. That was well beyond the capabilities of any other known warship short of a Reaper. Theoretically, if the Covenant used large, single shields instead of overlapping ones a Super Carrier could stand up to three or even four hits, but unfortunately for the Covenant, they used shield sectors, hence their Super Carriers were paper instead of a solid bulwark to YO missiles. She sighed, if 3872 Ship Gantries had been fielded already, life would be a lot simpler… the Mini Gantries took nearly two days to construct one of the heavier capital ships, far too long for the hectic pace of this war and the colossal losses of warships (but not crews) to be easily sustainable, especially as after this battle the war would probably grow more desperate for the Covenant.

The Medium and Heavy Orbital Defence Stations opened up first, maintaining passive stealth and active camo. The heavy munitions smashed away at the Covenant shields to no avail as the lumbering capital ships drew closer. As they closed in on the thus far un-targetable orbital defences, the Coalition warships all over the planet shifted their cluster stations to draw a larger force, five hundred of the seven hundred resident starships in the Reach Defence Fleet gathering to confront, with orbital defences for support, a force one and a half times their number.

Smaller Covenant infiltration fleets were forcing their way through the orbital defence perimeter, taking horrific losses while they were at it. Regardless, the orbital defences let the ground-side units deal with them. They had to (mostly) keep their guns outward and trust their ground-side defences and aerospace support to hold down the Covenant Corvettes that made it by them, along with a few Carriers and other warships.

They were headed toward New Alexandria, one of the fake cities set up with empty spires just as a trap. The city was walled off with only a few exits and with small firebases covering each exit… from the outside. Inside the walls was a wide field surrounding the grid-work of spires, and in that field, well… the Covenant would be in for some nasty surprises.

The clash of fleets began as soon as the Covenant picked up their hated foe that had already taken several of the smaller front-line warships. Plasma Torpedoes, Plasma Projectors and Pulse Lasers lit up the darkness of space just as plasma of various forms, Heavy Microwave Lasers and other weapons had crossed the other way ever since the Covenant had entered the system. After the initial volley was over, the Covenant braced their secondary weapons, including the newly installed Plasma Autocannons, for the expected torrent of starfighters that would come right about… now.

Nothing came, the first surprise that made the Covenant lose one volley's worth of secondary weapons fire by the time their weapons could slew around to face the Coalition fleet again. Big mistake, when a hail of strategic bomber bombs of various classes smashed into their rear, completely free of the Seraphs that had been gathered forward of the main fleet. It was effectively sticking a boot up the Covenant's ass, and just as the Seraphs turned back to assail the Strategic Bombers, which could actually be taken down by Seraphs in numbers, they picked up the Geminis. Seraphs were much like interceptors, though even WEAKER, hence the sudden wall of stealthed Aerospace Superiority Fighters shoving Nanite Missiles in droves up the Seraph's exhausts made it a total massacre. They zipped by the Seraphs without taking much damage, as the smaller, weaker fighter/bombers couldn't even turn in time to confront the Geminis before they ghosted past. The Geminis and Seraphs engaged in a wild "dogfight", though it was rather akin to timber wolves fighting Chihuahuas in the lopsidedness.

The newly installed anti-fighter weapons were a lot more effective than the old Plasma Torpedoes against the strategic bombers, since they were now trading about sixty bombers for each Covenant capital ship or about thirty for each Corvette/Frigate, as opposed to about a third that many per ship before. Still, the sheer number of strategic bombers involved in the swarming made the losses worth it, especially as the Covenant warships were often manoeuvring too much to avoid the heavy Mavor and Sonance slugs to shoot accurately at the Strategic Bombers that plagued them.

The Covenant maintained distance for easier swatting at the flies swarming them, and tried to back up when the Coalition ships advanced… which meant flashing the Coalition fleet that had just jumped in behind them, two more Recon Swarms opening fire and deploying a boiling river of starfighters as soon as they materialized, evening up the numbers somewhat.

"Hello Hannah, didn't expect me to miss the party did you?" Ariel Williams asked, arching one perfectly formed eyebrow.

Hannah smirked at her old friend and (every once in a while) lover "Hey Ariel, anvil position?" It had been one they both enjoyed.

"Maybe later. I'm thinking more 'the Hammer Falls'." Ariel waved it off. Her husband didn't mind them getting together for some girls time every once in a while, but even so, he hadn't been in a position to mind after the defeat of the Order. Besides, every once in a while (While the kids were away at Uncle Seth's or Uncle Hackett's, meaning knowing looks from the aforementioned men to the other members of the Elite Four) they'd invite him in just to be nice. It was a perfectly clear agreement, Hannah used it to satisfy her needs while Ariel and Eric's sex life sparked brighter with the occasional inclusion of the young Cybran beauty. In many cases, whenever she used her circuitry to her advantage, the small zaps and shocks she could deliver made that spark most literal indeed…

Now though was time for business, and so Hannah Shepard nodded curtly "Agreed, all units FORWARD!" She roared the last part, bringing her fist down just as, as if on cue, the fleet released another volley of Loa Tactical Missile. The displays were peppered for just a moment before they moved off as a body toward the Covenant group, many splitting as they were hit by Covenant weaponry. What ensued was a charge of two fleets mashing a third fleet in the middle before brutal close-range slugging began to tear away at shields, fields and armour alike. Covenant escape pods and ships alike were blown open in the silence of space, annihilating their occupants, while Coalition escape pods mostly made it back to the line of orbital defences. The latter were still providing artillery support, since the Coalition ships weren't moving and so were pinning the Covenant ships in place for the defence platforms to slug away at. The Yolona Oss stations held fire and hid their presence as ordered.

* * *

><p><em>Fake City: New Alexandria, Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

The Covenant troops were quite surprised to find the city devoid of occupants, but due to faked command channel signals by Seth-Thauum (Hannah and Ariel were hammering at the Covenant fleet and getting hammered in turn, so they were a bit busy) were settling in. It was one hell of a big mistake.

The first sign that something was going severely wrong for the hundred-plus thousand Covenant in the city came three hours after their landing, when comm. channels cleared up from static and they found almost no Covenant ships left in-system.

* * *

><p><em>Space near Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

"YO stations, fire two missile each, at these locations in the Covenant fleet on my mark…" Hannah started, the Covenant ships were currently very distracted "All Coalition warships that will still able to jump in about a minute, charge jump drives, disabled ones, fire pods, get back to the line, and ram the nearest enemy as soon as we pick up the missiles incoming! YO Stations, MARK!"

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED… STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" The display warnings had 30 as the multiplier next to them. Some of the further-away missiles moved faster to pull off a synchronized strike. (A/N: Reach had 30 Super MAC guns, ergo, 30 YO Stations, by that logic, the only thing stopping any Covenant near Earth from being reduced to quarks later is the fear of ecological damage.)

"Everyone, Jump or ram! Now! NOW!" Hannah barked as the two hundred remaining Coalition warships, mostly the Light Destroyers and Light Cruisers, jumped out as another fifty turned and smashed headlong into their foes, generally amidships, snapping keels and ships among the now hopelessly disorganized fleet. Jumping out while in a crossfire meant a lot of friendly fire for your enemy after all. The Covenant's 750 warships had fared much better, only down to about 400, well, 350 if you discount the rammed, drifting, and mostly already dead ships, but they were hopelessly confused as comm. and slipspace jammers fired from the Coalition warships kicked in and stopped them from going to slipspace or even coordinating effectively. Sixty Yolona Oss missiles, each powerful enough to landscape mountain ranges, went off among them, impaling ships on portions of other ships flying toward them, at least, the few not vaporized outright. With the Strategic Bombers, having fled to regroup, coming back, that meant the Covenant fleet was doomed, blasted, roasted down to the last soldier, even the escape pods, not that the Covenant used many of those, being mown down mercilessly. The wreckage would be useful for crafting new ships when the gantries were active again… after all, it was one of their functions, cleaning up battlefields.

* * *

><p><em>Fake City: New Alexandria, Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

The second sign that something was going extremely, hideously, horrifyingly wrong was the explosions that raked through the streets just before corpses, wrecks, etc started turning into paste under unseen treads. If the Coalition was not so thorough in their cleansing, someone would no doubt have said "Here we go again…" but it was not to be.

Reach was a trap world, the screaming of the panicking Covenant attested to it. The fact that their foes were invisible didn't help either… or so someone shouted. Good-naturedly, Seth, having picked it up through a Fatboy's audio feed, deactivated active/passive camouflage on said Fatboy. The Covenant didn't get much time to gape at the slab-like Experimental Mobile Factory (aka Land Battleship) before they were rolled over, but still they had seen the face of their foe and were shouting panicked reports over their comms to anyone who was listening. Those who tried to stick to the sides of the roads to avoid the towering Experimental's treads were crushed under the tracks of Pillar T2 Medium Armours, used for their rectangular shape and good fit in the streets to act as clean-up behind the Fatboy (run-over work).

Over a hundred thousand Covenant troops were blown up, squished, pulverized or otherwise reduced to non-living inorganic matter (due to a thorough carpet-bombing by Janus fighter-bomber firebombs burning everything up) within a couple hours. Still, there would be no rest for the weary.

* * *

><p><em>Space near Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

"More Slipspace Ruptures, over fifteen hundred, they're holding position outside our effective range." Grand Crusader Ariel Williams reported quietly, three hours had elapsed since the first battle had ended and most of the ships were back to full repair. A few more Mini Gantries had arrived by now, and they'd helped a lot.

"This is Division Commander Hannah Shepard, Supreme Seraphim Commander Seth-Thauum and Grand Crusader Ariel Williams in command at Reach, calling any and all available reinforcements, is anyone there?" Shepard growled into the comm. "We'll have over fifteen hundred Covenant ships inbound any time now… we only have four hundred capital ships, repairs are ongoing as we speak…"

"Much regret, unable…" Hackett was saying "we can spare three hundred Light Destroyers and Cruisers, that's all we can give you right now."

"Three hundred additional warships? That's not a fighting force, that's a funeral detail! Even counting the _Autumn_…" That was her flagship

"Don't underestimate Heavy Destroyers, Hannah. Your _Pillar of Autumn_ will take more than you might think…"

"Well, yeah…" She shrugged "oh well, let them come, and with our orbital defences, we outnumber them two and a half to one!"

"That's the spirit!" Hackett cut the comm. channel before the promised fleet arrived.

"Mini Gantries, prepare to act as a shield-wall, fire at will." She hated that kind of tactic but this was a state of emergency. Needless to say, the crews were pulled off before the Gantries entered position ahead of the fleet and started firing ranging HML beams. She hoped John wasn't watching her pull this sort of tactic, which was frowned upon, he and his crew had been moved to the _Autumn_ just hours ago…

The HML beams, though less effective due to distance, were still enough to make the Covenant draw back further. This was unusual, perhaps it was an unusual commander?

* * *

><p><em>Space near Reach, January 15, 3872<em>

"Noble Hierarch, I implore you to reconsider…" Thel Vadamee said calmly to the image of the Prophet of Truth. "This planet, Reach, has seemed to be a trap for us thus far, perhaps we should bring the whole of the Fleet of Particular Justice…"

"Five hundred more ships will not make a difference if you do not move now, before further Coalition reinforcements arrive." The Prophet was saying. "you have your orders, Supreme Commander, carry them out. The fleet will perform a charge on the enemy line, break through, and glass the planet before they can do too much. That will show them the power of the Covenant."

"What of their super missile launchers?"

"They can be killed by plasma projectors, the missiles, that is, no? And we can detect them, no? Ensure the fleet keeps an eye out for them."

"…You are correct, noble Hierarch." Thel Vadamee inclined his head in respect.

"Informally, Supreme Commander, I believe you can accomplish this, your fleet is known to be one of the more competent in the Covenant Navy, especially that Retribution Detachment of yours." Truth stated "Good luck, Supreme Commander."

Thel bowed his head again "Yes, Hierarch." After the image faded, he snorted. _Those idiots…_ and went back to commanding the fleet "The Hierarchs have ordered us to press the attack immediately, but first I must say a few words! Be cautious and ensure all those super missiles are shot down before they can reach us, CCS-class vessels, hang back with the frigates as a second group, ensure we are not hit from the rear or flanks by their abominable starfighters. You have all served well, my soldiers, today, many of us will not be coming back, yet we shall make the enemy pay for every one of us! We shall burn their ships and crews, glass their planet, in return for what horrors they have inflicted upon us! Brothers, warriors of the Covenant, ONWARD!" He brought his energy sword down in a dramatic gesture before deactivating the holo-transmission and hearing his troops roar in approval, the fleet's Cruisers, Destroyers, Corvettes, Carriers, Battleships and Assault Carriers lumber into motion, quickly leaving the Battlecruisers and Frigates which closed as a second formation tailing the primary one. "Capital ships, only fire the mid-bow half of our plasma projectors, have the others be ready for anti-missile duty. Those with only one projector, fire in groups at a target." Thel ordered as the eleven hundred warships moved in, followed by four hundred more.

* * *

><p>Across the battle space, Hannah's eyes narrowed as the first wave of plasma projectors smashed into the shields of the Mini Gantries, which held firm. This commander knew what he was doing, very well, she selected several Gantries she'd held in reserve. She circled all the YO launchers, which had closed formation toward her side of the planet (after she'd riddled the other side thoroughly with slipspace jammers that went out further) and gave a series of firing commands.<p>

* * *

><p>"Detecting super-missiles!" A subordinate called aboard the flagship, which was near the core of the formation, more intelligent than most.<p>

Thel frowned "So soon? No matter, anti-missile projectors fire on them, even it's ranging shots… they're heading toward their own formation…" His eyes widened "They're going to use themselves as shields for the missiles, all ships scatter, form a diffuse formation NOW!" He bellowed the last word, and the fleet began to spread out randomly to minimize splash damage from the deadly missiles, since they could splash sideways as well as forward, according to recordings.

* * *

><p>Hannah raised her eyebrows "Smart, but not smart enough…" She smirked as she packed up the three Gantries she would use for the task, though the shields were still all working fine, the guns were not when packed up. She sent them on a direct course and managed the missiles individually toward the relevant almost-clusters.<p>

The Covenant tried to destroy the gantries and the missiles under their alarmingly overpowered shields, they really did. The one Gantry they managed to kill ended up with its wreck rammed nose-first into the bow of an unfortunate Assault Carrier while the missiles scattered outwards to engulf that group of ships in quantum annihilation fire. The other two managed to let loose their missiles before jumping away, severely damaged. The Covenant fleet didn't lose nearly as many hopes as Hannah had hoped would happen. It looked like this would be a tough fight against an elite unit of the Covenant. Still, over a hundred ships had died in the first strike, tilting the odds just a little bit in favour of the Coalition, or less toward the Covenant at least.

The Covenant were rushing them now, despite volleys of Yolona Oss missiles being fired alongside the less devastating weapons of the warships. The two sections of the fleet were just far enough apart for a cloud of strategic bombers to have just bombed the first section before reloading in time to bomb the second section. The starfighters had been ordered on Cull Weakest attack patterns, smashing down on the smaller, more anti-fighter-capable warships first.

* * *

><p>Thel gripped his armrests tightly "Damn it, scanners, where the hell are their orbital platforms getting power from? To power those cloak generators they gotta have SOMETHING… Give me a scan of power emissions, now!" His subordinates highlighted several facilities on the planet's surface. "Damn, we'll have to run their gauntlet. Fleet of Particular Justice, are you up to it?" The bellows of approval from the fleet told him all he needed to know, though as usual the Retribution Detachment was a lot quieter than the others, having cynics helped keep your feet on the ground after all.<p>

* * *

><p>The Covenant force was too much, managing to force its way through the gauntlet the Coalition fleet formed as the Covenant fleet came barrelling by. Another three hundred Covenant warships were lost to close-range Yolona Oss and other fire into the formation, but the Coalition lost a hundred Medium and Heavy Orbital Defences and as many ships from the furious application of plasma projectors. The second fleet hung back, turning back to beyond Coalition weapons range via pin-point Slipspace jump.<p>

They started spreading out a bit after running the gauntlet, so that the pursuing missiles from the YO silos wouldn't destroy too many more of them, and they managed to shoot down some of the missiles, the others made big splashes in the fleet though even as they launched tens of thousands of Seraphs and Dropships. The Geminis harassing the fleet reacted quickly enough to shoot down most of the Dropships before the Seraph swarm began to grow too large to ignore.

The Covenant began making pin-point jumps toward the sensor ghosts they'd picked up before, the orbital defence stations, in an attempt to take them out. Unfortunately, the shields of the stations held long enough for the offending Covenant ships to be destroyed by furious fusillades of weapons from surrounding Coalition warships, though Assault Carriers typically required a YO blast to take down fast enough and Battleships were powerful enough to take out the platforms (unless it included one of the YO platforms) it was attacking before being sliced apart or jumping out.

Reports started coming in from some of the generator complexes that had once fed Reach's cities and some of the ground-side guns. They had, as expected, been converted into traps, but the Covenant didn't know that. This Covenant commander was good, to have thought to scan for energy signatures, but what he didn't know, the fact that the others were under Twilight T2 stealth generators, wouldn't hurt him… much.

"There's thousands of them, Jackals, Drones and Brutes, they've got tanks and fliers. It's a turkey shoot out here, especially with our PD guns and artillery!" A Marine on the ground reported, sounding almost jubilant as he fired his Temporal Fizz Launcher, identified by the pulsing noises, from his perch on the outer armoured shell of the power plants, at the Drones, which were swatted in huge numbers.

* * *

><p>"Why'd we send in the Brutes?" Someone murmured behind Thel, who turned with a savage grin.<p>

"Young male, I sent the Brutes first because they'll just get in our way later, and besides, the Prophets sent them to help us, and so they are helping… if only they'd do a better job of it. You do realize that all through this war the Sangheili have gotten all these dangerous deployments while the fat Brutes" He'd picked that up from intercepted transmissions, and needless to say most of the Fleet of Particular Justice found it totally appropriate "laid back and laughed at our failures. Well, let's give them a taste of what it meant to fight the Coalition, it is not our own failures that plague us, but their numbers and ground-side technology. Also, they're better at taking crippling damage than we are, though I hate to admit it, their stupid Rage ability is an asset at times… though apparently not now."

There were growls of agreement from all around the command room, though someone grumbled "Wish we didn't have to waste those Wraiths and Banshees though."

Thel snorted "Agreed, but still, they're nearly useless anyways, the northern generator cluster offensive is failing, no?" Someone barked an affirmative to the Supreme Commander "As soon as the last Covenant soldier is down, open fire with plasma projectors!"

The weapons officers replied with a volley of "Aye Supreme Commander!"

"Wait, I've thought of something, fleet, every ship, do a half barrel roll! Keep belly projectors firing up at the orbital defence grid! Make sure at least two projectors per battle group are held in reserve for anti-missile duty. Dorsal projectors" those were of capital ships only "fire down on the generators! And make sure they don't hit us with missiles from ground-side!"

As soon as she saw the Covenant ships flipping belly-up Hannah began to slew her orbital defences around, half of them, plus her fleet, to face down toward the planet, firing a fresh volley of Yolona Oss warheads, emptying the launchers for now… they had after all just been fabricated, so fresh that the next wave hadn't even begun building quite yet.

Only five of the missiles found their marks, sending their targets down in pieces and the escorts around the capital ships flying and crashing with their power. Ahwassas that were casually circling the nearby firebases immediately began to move out to the wrecks to sterilize the areas. The Covenant return fire finally managed to take out their first Orbital Strategic Missile Stations, three of the thirty, in fact, went up in gigantic explosions as the somewhat reduced Paragons brewed up, buffeting the Heavy Defence Stations that had been meant to protect them. That was a big loss, since each OSMS mounted three YO launchers and a massive array of other weapons Sure, they'd already been damaged, but how… oh, right. The Covenant sensors might be crap, but the three that had been right by their entrance way to Reach atmosphere were hard to miss… Hannah would need to be careful later. Still, at least the groundside battle was going well… that was a massive understatement.

* * *

><p>As far as Thel was concerned, the ground-side engagement was going well, he'd never liked what the humans called Jackals, Drones, or Brutes, and it was for all practical purposes a purging of idiots from the Fleet of Particular Justice. Objectively speaking, he knew perfectly well that things were going at best horribly. Still, the new upgrades applied to the plasma projectors, long overdue in his opinion, were faring better than the old ones. They were cycling faster now, thankfully.<p>

The guns hadn't been upgraded since the end of the Unggoy Rebellions a century ago, when most of the Covenant's great fleets were disbanded with the war's end and the conscripts went home to their normal jobs. The treasury, exhausted by decades of war, had been too weak at the time to adequately support such a vast standing military. And so most of the fleets had been mothballed and the soldiers sent home. Now those soldiers were starting to grow old, no longer fully fit for military service, besides, even re-training took time, as did the reactivation and upgrading of the ships. If it wasn't for that, they could probably have swarmed the Coalition, but no…

The fleet was locked in a trade of fire with the ships and stations in orbit while bombarding the surface, wrecking the installations they'd detected, and there weren't many of them for a supposed fortress world like the orbital defences suggested… Thel's eyes widened as reports came in from the other fleet offensives, they were successful, many of them, forcing the Coalition to retreat, and he would soon receive reinforcements. That was excellent news, except for the fact that he was ordered to retrieve artefacts from the surface and not glass it before he'd gotten them…

* * *

><p>The battle was going relatively well, right up until Dostya contacted Seth, Ariel and Hannah with horrifying news "Covenant reinforcements detected en route, be careful, we're still tied up at Rigel, Seton and Pearl II."<p>

"Fuck, well, I'll lead them on a wild goose chase then." Hannah stated as the transmission ended "Fill up the bays and clamps of the _Autumn_ with Strategic Bombers and Geminis, I'm going to lead them on a distraction run to those coordinates EDI managed to get from that artefact on Sigma Octanus IV. It's probably important to the Covenant because we've picked up Covenant transmissions from and to there over the last while. Taking the _Autumn_ there will most likely piss them off, badly. It'll take some pressure off you guys, but before that, let's do another bomber swarming…"

Over nine thousand Strategic Bombers of varying classes poured from the defence stations and ships over Reach, surging out toward the secondary Covenant fleet like an angry horde of bees. After annihilating the frigates, they moved on to fighting the CCS-class Battlecruisers. While the aforementioned BCs were occupied, the Autumn flew at them at full burn, all guns oriented full forward and laying down a river of destruction that forged ahead of the one and a half-kilometre Heavy Destroyer. The Covenant ships, each less than a fifth the mass of the bulk charging them, didn't stand much of a chance against the swarm of Strategic Bombers whose bombs were flying at them incessantly and the capital ship that they screened. Originally, the CCS plus frigate group was meant to combine anti-capital and anti-fighter firepower, but there were just too many fighters, too many fighters… and the capital ship was being supported by too many shield generators.

The primary Covenant fleet jumped to high orbit soon enough for the _Autumn_ to disappear into slipspace. They managed to save the secondary fleet, just in time to continue the slugfest with the arrival of new waves of Yolona Oss missiles, but Thel then received new orders… "Follow that ship, it's commanded by Division Commander Hannah Shepard, destroy it, kill her." The Prophet of Truth ordered. Thel was very, very pissed off, but he knew it had to be done, so, he took fifty ships with him to slipspace, following the Coalition warship, which seemed to have taken significant damage, so significant they'd slowed enough for the Covenant warships to keep pace.

Rtas was given fleet command, and with the new reinforcements, the Fleet of Particular Justice, now at eighteen hundred ships (having committed the reserves to battle as well), turned to face the twenty-five hundred remaining orbital defences of Reach. The Coalition had also received a handful of reinforcements, bringing their ship count up to five hundred. It would be a lopsided battle…

That was what everyone thought right before just over four hundred Aeon Home Fleet vessels, four Enlightenment Groups, each equivalent to a Recon Group, jumped in to the left flank of the Coalition fleet currently present "Sorry we were late in delivering reinforcements, they had to navigate around a Hurricane on their way here." Avatar of War Rhiza said from the screen, having sent over half the Aeon Home Fleet to the battle. Three hundred Seraphim Republic ships, half of their still under-strength Home Fleet, came in on the Coalition group's other side, bringing the balance to twelve hundred. The Covenant fleet stopped moving to engage and instead stood there in what seemed to be shock… That was explained as another twelve hundred or so Covenant warships jumped in, and they began a charge before the orbital defences could clump up too much and be even more of a threat.

Right before the two fleets would have opened full fire on one another, seven hundred Cybran Home Fleet vessels, which was the entirety of said fleet other than the Procyon Defence Fleet, jumped in above and below the assembled Coalition warships. The UEF only sent a hundred, led by Hackett himself. The two sides clashed together with an almighty display of light and munitions only seconds after those ships jumped in…

* * *

><p>Two days later, all contact with Reach and its defence fleets were lost as the Covenant kept pressing in all along the front with fresh (from mothball) fleets and re-trained personnel. It seemed the anticipated wave of fresh re-trained Covenant crews was here. Five days after that, UEF Captain James Ackerson, assistant to Supreme UEF Commander (aka Admiral) Hackett, made an announcement to the public in reply to the accusations that the UEF had not sent enough of its home fleets to assist when the Cybrans, Aeon, and Seraphim had already thrown thousands of their Home Fleet vessels into the fray at Reach. "We are not wasting a single UEF ship to confirm what we've seen a dozen times before on a dozen different colonies. Reach is gone, everything on it is blasted to bits, burned, glassed over, and vaporized. Everyone on Reach is dead, Dead, DEAD." He emphasized, suddenly very glad for the shield over his podium, especially as the audience of diplomats, military officers and senators were hurling fruit, their lunches (some even managed to induce projectile vomiting and directed those streams at him), and Molotov cocktails at him. Then they stopped doing things abruptly just before he could flee the podium. He turned around just in time to freeze in shock as he was stared down…<p>

* * *

><p>CSC PILLAR OF AUTUMN (3872 Heavy Destroyer)<p>

Designed to be able to hack its way through Covenant Heavy Capital Ships (and maybe Reapers) in groups or formations of smaller ships on its own, the Heavy Destroyer is, as of February 3872, the most powerful Coalition warship ever fielded. It is among the more powerful ships outside the Covenant, though reports from the rebuild of the _Destiny Ascension_ make that ship's renovated version more than likely to be able to match up. It is unknown thus far where they got the design concept from, but the Asari sure are pouring as much cash as they can into that project. The new _Ascension_ will be useful when the time comes to fight the Reapers though…

1500 m x 700 x 600 (l x w x h)

Hangars for 300 T3 aircraft, can hold 600 T2 or 1200 T1. (Yes, there's one of the nerfed versions of Paragons onboard to supply the resources needed.)

600 External clamps, enough for 600 T1, 300 T2 or 200 T3 (I know the number ratio's different from inside) aerospace craft.

Same gate room as the Light Destroyers/Cruisers, 8 ACU slots (though usually none carried) and 2 gates, 1 at each end of the room. One is a Cybran style, able to handle 2 at once, and one is Seraphim, more stable transport.

Takes a 3872 Mini Gantry (3860 Ship Gantry) 3.5 days to build

ARMAMENT

18 Heavy Microwave Lasers

24 Triple Gauss Cannons

4 Mavor barrels

2 Scathis guns

9 Sonance Artilleries

16 Heavy Oblivion Cannons

2 Heavy Plasma Accelerators

40 Loa Racks (12 each)

50 Medium Oblivion Cannon

40 Quarnon Cannons

110 Ravagers

100 Ultrachromatic Beam Generators

70 Zealot Space Interception Missile Launchers

50 Electron Flak Turrets

35 Will-O-The-Wisp TMDs

70 Zapper TMDs

4 Guardian SMD Silos

* * *

><p>AN: The _Autumn_ is going to come back in one piece, with a rather large trophy in tow.

Hannah Shepard (speaking to readers) was reclining in full armour, juggling her array of three SMGs, her armour having been specially outfitted to carry a much larger than normal weapons rack "Well, after thoroughly messing up the inside of that CCS on my own I gotta say we brought home one giant-ass tub for study. Still, it wasn't nearly as hard as I'd expected it to be, and vaporizing that station and its fleet? Priceless, literally, no price paid, no nothing." She was grinning broadly as she added her pistols to the juggling one by one from her much-enlarged holsters (which drew from her quantum storage).

To find out just how they destroyed the _Unyielding Hierophant_ and its fleet, without losing the _Ascendant Justice_, you'll just have to wait until we get there, past the first Halo and a number of revelations that come with it.

REVIEW!


	12. Baby I Have Been Here Before

A/N: EDI will NOT entirely replace Cortana, she shares the role with Legion, and someone else… Oh, and for the record just because I haven't been showing it does not mean the _Normandy_… no, _Spirit of Fire_… no, _"the"_ crew is not getting laid.

The Thirteenth will be updated in time for the Colonials to become collateral damage, or at least the next group of ships they send. They think the Coalition has good warships? Wait until they see the Plasma Projectors… About Hannah Shepard going around, living life, now that her sons are grown up, that's mainly for jokes… and the fact that she's a bit too busy for a serious relationship with someone who's a different rank. Fooling around, especially between ranks, is frowned upon, but lasting relationships… they only increase unit efficiency and hence are allowed and even somewhat encouraged.

To those who think so i.e. a lot of people _other_ than **Nenfaer**, Thel Vadamee is NOT an idiot! He knows that he needs overwhelming numbers to win a victory that's not too expensive, standard case of _relatively_ smart and practical field commander under stupid-ass high command. Also, the _Autumn_ WILL eventually go up against the Super Carrier _Ascendant Justice_, and as the 18x length discrepancy suggests… the results will NOT be favourable.

* * *

><p>Chapter 12: Baby I Have Been Here Before<p>

_Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, Near Unknown Ring World, January 16, 3872_

Hannah Shepard looked at the ring's scan data with a deep frown as she directed the Autumn's entire arsenal of Heavy Microwave Lasers to burn away at the neck shields of a CCS-class Covenant BC. The smaller ship (at least in mass and volume) was dealing large amounts of damage in return to the Heavy Destroyer, but not fast enough. It was trying to evade but being outmanoeuvred by the larger, tougher, stronger and somewhat (sufficiently) more nimble Heavy Destroyer "There we go, come on, boy, pop… POP!" The shield bubble over that zone popped as another volley of Heavy Oblivion Cannon fire from the sixteen barrels of the Heavy Destroyer smashed into it, and she started cutting. With a total of 18 Heavy Microwave Lasers, or 144 kilotons per second output, she cut the head section of the Covenant ship off within a dozen or so seconds of manual slicing. That disabled one of the plasma projectors of the ship, the "chin" gun, but the other guns still made it dangerous. A volley of Strategic bomber bombs flying a dozen after another into the severed end ensured that ship was done for.

It was a major relief that Covenant shields were in sectors and not one merged, combined bubble like on Coalition warships. Of course, said bubble on Coalition ships also had back-up sector-type shield bubbles, but that was beside the point. The fact that they were fielding the new model of Shield Disruptor Hannah had created literally overnight was not helping the Covenant one bit. For lack of better terms, it was a Shocker with the central bomb areas ripped out and an Absolver more or less slotted in with some power boosting. Sure, it was a rough-and-tumble design and half the fielded units were functioning at half of what she wanted in firing rate, but it was working, and that was what mattered for now. She had just forwarded it to High Command for future deployments when they left Slipspace.

"How many of them did we draw away from Reach, EDI?" Hannah asked.

The bio-synthetic fusion woman next to her sighed, glancing at Joker who held the helm firm "Sadly only fifty warships, we outstripped them in the end run, but then there were these damned CCS-class groups, I'm detecting five groups, three CCS BCs and seven escorts per group…" The last CCS of that first group went down to a pounding of Scathis and Mavor shells even while the Heavy Microwave Lasers gouged away at the smaller warships near the Autumn, which were already severely harried by the wings of Strategic Bombers the Heavy Destroyer had deployed. "Make that four groups now…"

The youngest Division Commander in centuries sighed and rubbed her face "That's fewer than I'd hoped, I'd wished for at least a hundred…" Hannah smirked savagely "Let's give them a good beating."

"I highly doubt this ship is designed to stand up to Battleships or Assault Carriers, CCS warships are better known for being carriers for ground troops than for space combat aptitude after all…" EDI cautioned, looking at the shield displays which were around half, mostly thanks to a Covenant Destroyer ramming them (and shattering on impact).

"I know EDI… Summon EVERYONE to combat stations, and get John down to the hangar bays as soon as he snaps out of that trance of his." Hannah gestured toward her son vaguely.

"One would his mother would be better equipped to relocate him…" EDI smirked at Hannah's glare. They could afford this banter since they weren't in combat right now.

"I've got a battle to run, EDI. We know the Covenant has some AI capability, far beneath you but still, they can figure out what's most efficient and try countering that, with human error, their counters will fail abysmally." She cracked her knuckles, well, she pressed her hands together so that the speakers on her suit made the noises relevant to that typical action, she wasn't going to actually do it, it wasn't good for one's joints. "Is that ring world what the Covenant's in this system for?"

"Yes, yes it is, or so it seems."

Hannah cackled for a moment "Good, then we shall meet them on it, get everyone to the port hangar bay, and have the two evac Geminis there ready to take everyone down there."

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's mind…<em>

His mind was filled with images as he saw that ring rotating around that gas giant, Threshold, it was called… why'd he call it Threshold? He knew not. An image invaded his mind. It was himself and the human version of Liara, her arms wrapped around his waist and his around hers, looking out toward the ring among the sea of stars. They were on the observation deck of an unfamiliar starship, and near them John could see James with a woman sitting next to him, talking, her back to them, eyes seemingly fixed on James. All he could see was some lightly purple-tinted skin and light teal hair.

Surely this was some past life somewhere… it had to be, because the woman who he held and who held him was mumbling "Halo… so beautiful, so deadly…" She sounded like Liara and she felt like Liara… even her mind felt like Liara's to him, and he knew that it was her, in another life, a life many thousands of years ago at the very least. "If we have to …"

He wanted to ask what she meant, but he could not control his past life, which merely pulled her closer and nodded lightly. Before he could hear what his past self had to say, the flashback faded, to be replaced with another. The same ship, he and James were alone now, looking vacantly out toward the same ring glimmering in the rising of the sun over Threshold's horizon "And so a galaxy died… so much loss… so much sorrow…" He whispered to himself.

That scene too faded from his mind, leaving him standing there on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn looking out toward a ring he was sure he knew, that he was sure he had been on before… that Liara had been on before. He needed to summon her as soon as possible, this was critical information, he somehow knew, to saving the galaxy…

* * *

><p><em>James Shepard's mind…<em>

He looked at the ring bleakly, it was a sign of despair for him. It had killed the woman he loved, and in doing so, had killed him more effectively than any Flood Combat Form could hope to do. He smirked thinking about the Flood, Tali had gained her moniker by personally fending off a Flood assault on her ship, killing hundreds of Combat Forms herself before they could get the ships disengaged, then eject and incinerate the sections the Flood had infected. He grew sombre at the thought, he'd never see her silvery eyes light up with happiness again, never hear her laugh again, never get to feel her purple-tinted skin under his fingers again, never smell that scent he was addicted to again… It was depressing, and what was almost worse was that perhaps they should have waited a bit longer, maybe then neither he nor John would feel so alone…

This place would be their last stop before they headed back to the Homeworld, the same Homeworld no Forerunner had set foot on since the beginning of Forerunner civilization, due to the existence of the Prime Directive. Hell, even the Flood had understood the need not to create a time paradox and left Earth alone… left that particular shield world completely alone…

The weary Admiral turned his back on the ring he himself had helped conceive, the same ring that had sealed the whole mess. It was the same ring he, Tali, John and Liara had visited so many times before, but now it was different. After its firing, it was completely different to even think of, let alone look upon. He glanced back to his twin and shook his head sadly, Liara being a psychic-capable probably meant John was much more torn up than James was or ever could be. He didn't know how John could take the loss of someone you bonded so deeply with, but he was taking it, and James respected him greatly for it…

* * *

><p><em>Port Hangar Bay, CSC Pillar of Autumn, Near Unknown Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"Attention all personnel, prepare for direct hostile contact." EDI's voice, no longer the synthesized voice she once had but a smooth adaptation of one Sarah Kerrigan's, with minor modifications, came over the PA "Everyone to the Port Hangar Bay, immediately, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is NOT a drill." EDI called over the comm. just before it shut off and she went to help Joker, sure, the guy was pretty much fixed now but one of the few things that could unglue him from a pilot's seat with relative ease nowadays was EDI.

In the hangar bay, James Shepard was trying to give a pep talk. "Soldiers, keep your eyes down range, fingers on your triggers, and everyone except THEM, and for the record Thel Lodam you're included in the 'us' category, goes home in one piece."

Tali rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's bad public speaking skills "In better terms, it's our job to finish what those flyboys started, we're leaving this ship and engaging the Covenant on solid ground, when we meet the enemy, we'll rip their skulls from their spines and toss 'em away laughing our asses off."

"That is physically imp—" Legion suddenly noticed Jack and Samara glaring at him "this platform is shutting up now."

"Thanks for the contribution, Legion, anyone else got anything else?"

"Soldiers!" Another voice boomed, John Shepard's, as the floor vibrated with every step he took, his weapons already readied and many stuck to his back as opposed to in storage. "We led those dumb Covenant out to the middle of nowhere to keep them from getting their fanatical claws on Reach, but we've found something they're so hot for they're scrambling over each other to get it. Well, I don't dare if it's the universe's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine or a giant hula hoop. We're not gonna let 'em have it, what we WILL let them have is a one-way express ticket to whatever hell they came from, and a pool of their own blood to grease up the ride. AM I RIGHT, MARINES?"

"SIR YES SIR!"

"Well, now that formalities are over, everyone to the Geminis, Thel Lodam, which do you prefer?"

The lone Elite, dressed in Seraphim Light Armour (Seraphim armour was easily adaptable to digitigrade legs, the others took a lot more work, and it wasn't quite worth it), looked around "They look the same to me." He stated plainly, gesturing to the two Geminis.

"I meant should I call you Thel or Lodam?"

"Lodam is better." Lodam stated.

John nodded, according to James this Elite was a reasonable guy who was rather pissed at the Covenant for "not noticing how the Forerunner language was English, same as one of the main Coalition languages and the Covenant languages, so maybe the Coalition isn't an affront to the Forerunners after all" John would give this guys a chance… "Great, Lodam, you're with me, Tali, James, take the other one. Remember the command hierarchy guys, good luck."

* * *

><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, Near Unknown Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"What are they saying about the ring, EDI?" Hannah asked as she yanked the _Autumn_ up over two Plasma Projector shots. "You mentioned a lot of comm. chatter about it earlier."

"It seems to be of religious importance to them. They aren't going to use heavy anti-ship weapons near it." EDI stated as they butchered another CCS with their huge arsenal.

"Great, then we'll be landing the Autumn on it." Hannah stated simply. "Let's get cracking."

* * *

><p><em>Port Hangar Bay, CSC Pillar of Autumn, Near Unknown Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"EDI's going with you, John, I'm going to land the ship and set up defences near it, the Covenant won't be firing on the ring with their heavier anti-ship guns anyways so we can handle them any day." Hannah informed him as EDI climbed into his shuttle in her own armour and with her weapons.

"Great, so it was a last minute change in plans Commander?" John asked.

"EDI did her best but we don't really have much of a chance with the damage our shields have taken." Hannah explained.

"We've taken out fifty Covenant warships already through smart tactics but our shields are near depletion, and that was when they came in small groups, we have fifty more HEAVIER warships on our tails, they'll be here in but minutes. No chance AT ALL." EDI explained to the soldiers in both Geminis, which was everyone from the old Normandy crew except the non-combatants, who would be staying with the _Pillar of Autumn_. "Our best chance is to land on that ring, hunker down, and be a thorn on the Covenant's side to draw reinforcements away from Reach."

The ship vibrated slightly "What was that?"

"The first wave of boarding craft just hit us." EDI shrugged "Nothing major, the fields took minimal damage and the Electron Flak batteries are popping up even as we speak… there, space is clear, let's get moving."

More fighters launched, the Covenant trying to shoot them with pulse lasers and failing since the Autumn being too big a threat, and the starfighters being tough enough even plasma orpedoes required two hits. That meant they had to get moving fast. "Let's hit it!" Jack whooped as the Gemini shot out .

"I think I should have checked which lifeboat Gemini I was getting into." EDI grumbled.

"Well the other one has a Quarian Pyromaniac Engineer who has a sever problem with anyone being threatening to her boyfriend." Jedore supplied. "I think Grunt's probably got a minor problem right now."

Indeed, in the other Gemini at that time, Grunt's testicles, all four of them, felt like they were trying to crawl back up into his belly as he kept a nervous eye on where Tali's hands, once again five-fingered (a prosthetic middle and ring finger disguising her non-human identity). His own, also now five-fingered, hands were still twitching toward covering his groin in near-reflex after the sheer pain she'd put him through last time. The big Krogan was sitting as far as physically possible from the Quarian, but he was still almost quivering with fear.

Inside John's Gemini, Lodam was reflecting on the events of the last few days, it seemed there were even more races out there… amazing, especially the carapaced beast. The surprising thing was how the Asari and Quarians were so damned human-like, hell, other than the colour and fringes for Asari and the fingers and toes for Quarians he would have thought them humans… It was yet another enlightening experience, beyond what Jenkins, who'd been transferred away, told him about. If the Covenant was all about species living together in harmony, then the Coalition did a hell of a lot better with this Citadel Council than the Covenant was doing right now. Once again, he found raw faith alone to be insufficient to keep fighting on. Why were they really fighting anyways? He wanted to find out.

EDI suddenly looked up "The Autumn! Her shields are down now, The Division Commander's taking her down manually, we'll be in the ring's atmosphere in five seconds."

"Call it Halo." John stated plainly, as they entered the atmosphere with nothing but a subtle vibration as the structural fields warded away the heat of re-entry.

"Huh?"

"I know of this place, from a past life I think, anyways, Liara was in the memory… Liara, you need to see this. Thel, don't panic, she's under cloak right now." That was the cover story they agreed on "Liara, it's safe to uncloak now."

Liara "uncloaked", okay, it was a summoned Hallucination but still… even though Thel didn't panic, he still banged his mandibles on the inside of his helmet with how wide he gaped. He was thankful, as without the helmet, he would likely have sprained them… Liara began speaking at once "It's about time John, let me see…" She froze, looking at the holo-rendering "I remember this place, this ring… It might have been many lifetimes ago but I remember designing parts of it, long nights spent poring over the progress of the war and the construction of the Halo Array… I still don't remember my rank back then but… baby I have been here before. "

"Hallelujah." Jack said softly inside her helmet, no one noticing her as her speakers were muted.

"I'm going to talk to Feron for a sec, alright John?" Liara said absently, quickly, before her eyes went rather empty as she left for now, her Hallucination body settled in her seat.

"That blank look is really creepy." Lodam stated plainly.

Jedore nodded "Glad to see we agree, I think psionics of that extent are creepy but to each his own I guess."

"Coming in nice and easy… picking up two Banshees and a Spirit Dropship patrolling up ahead…" EDI reported before a pause and a few "whoosh" noises over the PA announced missiles firing "They've been removed, let's get down there, hide the Gemini and kill as many Covenant as we can find…"

"That's the spirit!" Hannah yelled over the PA as the _Autumn_ hurtled overhead, moving in for a landing some distance up-spin i.e. Eastward.

"See you Mom!" John and James called as the Gemini began to settle into the clearing among the cliffs that they'd found.

"Later boys!" Hannah replied before she cut the channel. Heavy Destroyers might not be designed with landing in mind but they could still pull off a landing, since the few belly guns and the clamps could all be retracted inside protective coverings. Support struts could be fabricated on-the-spot to hold it upright, and of course gravity manipulation would prevent the ship from sinking into the ground.

* * *

><p>AN: WAY shorter than I'd expected, because of the fact that Coalition ships are rather difficult at best to board.

You get a feeling as to where the Forerunner past lives are going yet?

Okay, I'm merging the next part into this…

* * *

><p><em>Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"This architectural style, the buildings we've picked up nearby, is consistent with Forerunner work. Also, the ring seems to simulate a garden world…" EDI analyzed. "I'm reading thousands of types of flora, the ecosystem is quite sophisticated…"

"Could the Coalition build such a thing?" Liara asked John.

"If we had a good reason it seems likely we could build such a mega-structure, but there is no reason to, hence we did not. From our visions, the Forerunners must have had good reasons…" John said as they moved onward, "Boost over this waterfall guys… wait, there's nothing here, alright, let's go rejoin with James' crew, boost, not the bridge, I don't trust it…" moving over the small river chasm by QP Pack reunited the two groups of Marines, Sangheili and Devouring One included.

_This place feels so familiar, I just can't quite place it… Let's go kill some Covenant._ Urz thought to the human-like crew members.

"Agreed, Urz, let's go kill some Covenant." John said, patting the Devouring One's back.

The hideously oversized Zergling rolled his gun barrel red eyes behind his bluish-tinted horizontal strip of a visor (he had taken a liking to human video games and decided the Grenadier Visor from C&C 3 looked cool enough to apply to his armour). It was good for use when his HUD was for whatever reason offline, he could at least still see a little… though that never happened to him, ever. Something about this ring world felt… off, dangerous… like an ancient enemy… No, that couldn't be, these were built to kill the Flood, weren't they? At least, that's what the Zerg genetic memory said… Then why did he sense their taint? It was faint, like an old blood stain, but still… _There may be Flood somewhere on this Ring guys, be careful._ His friends relayed the warning to every Coalition-affiliated individual immediately thereafter.

"I'm reading a Covenant Spirit Dropship crash beacon over the next hill, probably same one that the Geminis shot down, surprised it's more or less in one piece…" Tali was saying "Let's go look for survivors and give them a warm welcome." The menacing way she hoisted her flamethrower ensured not even Urz argued.

"We should use APHE rounds, especially on Grunts." Jacob said, checking his ammo selection and switching it form AP to APHE.

"Listen to Jacob." John stated when everyone looked at him for confirmation.

The first few Covenant were, well, a joke, though Urz still kept his distance from the Grunts (methane tanks are explosive) and used the two laser pistols they'd incorporated into his forearm armour instead to help eliminate them. The blasts from the pressurized methane tanks rupturing and cooking off would surely warn the Covenant, but so what?

The next open area held some sort of beam emitter that looked, and scanned as, suspiciously similar to the old-fashioned environment containment spires… that were in use in the 2800s. Nowadays, Coalition tech didn't need that sort of thing anymore to maintain an environmental field. Still, it represented an excellent opportunity to kill house regarding the Spirit Dropships that were in the air overhead after the picket group had suddenly vanished into thin air…

…or rather a hail of laser, gauss, Phasic and sonic pulse weapons fire. "INLs Authorized On those Spirits!" John shouted as the Spirits tried to pin them down with what was little more than Phasic SMG fire. A few shots from an INL (Kasumi's) took down the first Dropship while the soldiers it had left on the ground were being massacred, the second and third Dropships didn't even get to run away before John, Kasumi, and James swatted them down and the group set about shooting the Covenant troops. Lodam seemed a little hesitant but kept fighting anyways, a good sign to John, as that meant he wasn't too likely to be an infiltrator, though Hannah had assured him Lodam was not he was still naturally suspicious. No competent infiltrator would be so hesitant, and they would need to be pretty competent to get past his mother.

A pair of Covenant Banshees appeared over the edge of the cliffs surrounding the clearing and let loose a pair of fuel rod gun shots at John's back while he was engaging troops dropped from another Spirit, Mirala was about to shout a warning when she noted neither of the green bolts touched him. She sensed a psionic presence shining through the power armour's psi-hiding fields for just an instant before watching the fuel rod gun shots loop back and smash into the wings of the Banshees, scrapping the craft and sending them down in flames, spinning wildly. Both pilots were grabbed out of their seats by a telekinetic field before being slammed against the ground hard, their broken bodies yanked in front of a certain other Ardat-Yakshi's avatar and were compressed into balls of blood, jellified flesh and shattered bones and armour before being hurled away to splatter on the cliff faces, leaving long streaks of gore along them that read "FUCK YOU COVENANT".

"That's what you get for trying to hurt my boyfriend." Liara growled before going back to her usual curious self "Hey, let's go take a look around that Forerunner building…"

"If she means what I think she means, John Shepard, you are one hell of a brave male…" Lodam hissed to John. "And a lucky one too" _That she hasn't accidentally killed you with her powers… I mean sure Sangheili males are weaker than females physically but we at least have a chance… you'd get pulverized in an instant._ He thought, then realized that much to his horror…

"Yeah, I am really lucky." John Shepard said dreamily, grinning like a fool as they walked toward the Beam Emitter.

Lodam would have facepalmed but for a voice that intruded in his head. _I would never hurt him if I could help it, Lodam, just for the record. I can hear your thoughts as clear as day if I focus, by the way, and if you try hurting him or me your existence will be over before the universe can register your passing, you understand me?_

_Yes, yes._ Thel couldn't help his mental squeak of fear as he looked at the letters painted in blood on the cliff walls.

_Good._ The scary Asari looked away from him now, looking around the Beam Emitter's rooms, the door had somehow opened for them, though it seemed to only open for her, John, James and Tali. "You know, guys, I think I've been here before…" She looked around "I know these walls, I've walked this floor…"

"I used to live alone before I knew ya…" Jedore said, smirking, no one took note of her as they were all too busy looking around.

* * *

><p><em>Liara's mind…<em>

This place was familiar to her, too familiar. She could almost see images, shadows of a time long gone, moving through, setting things up, talking about the settings…

-FLASHBACK-

"How goes construction, Liara?" John asked her as they walked around the Halo's surface, entering the clearing the Beam Emitter was in.

"Alright, I guess, the environment modulators I designed are working fine, we're starting to introduce fish to the oceans now…" Liara's human past life was saying to her lover…

"Really? I'm guessing you and Tali cooperated on the project?" John asked her, she shoved him, chuckling.

"Oh ye of little faith… I can do things on my own too, I didn't get my job for nothing, you know." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders affectionately and they instinctively leaned their heads together "I just hope it never comes down to this… to Halo…" She looked up, surprisingly, instead of the stars she'd expected, they could see the Milky Way seemingly standing still far above their heads. "The fact that we even had to build this Installation says something, doesn't it?"

"Yes, yes it does." The two simply held each other, looking up at the galaxy in the twilight of the Halo Installation.

-END FLASHBACK-

That was incredible, she decided, she needed to get to the bottom of this mystery… Otherwise it would nag at her until the end of her most likely quite long years.

* * *

><p><em>Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

After Liara had told them about her vision, they proceeded past several more buildings and clearings, slaughtering a large number of Covenant in the process. Urz ambushed some Jackals via burrowing and slashed the terrified avian aliens to ribbons with absurd ease, but beyond that, nothing really exciting happened until they found a tunnel and Liara had a mental image of it being built "This tunnel is not a natural formation, I remember it being built, so it must lead somewhere…" Liara said as they ran into it.

EDI made a surprised noise, prompting everyone to level weapons in guard formation. "I've hacked into the Covenant battle net, they're broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels! Let's show them who they're dealing with…" She growled the past part. "I'm filtering their chatter now for intel."

They moved into a large cavern and held another, somewhat longer turkey shoot, staying well clear of the chasm in the middle of the room. "There's gotta be a mechanism…" Liara said, looking around.

She was suddenly struck with a flashback, watching John disappear through a small doorway and appear on a small platform to her right, hitting the controls and activating the light bridge. She smirked, she could have gone across using her mind, and throw/yanked him across too, but he insisted on her saving her energy. The memory faded "John, there's a light bridge you can activate from that platform…" she pointed, noting he was already there.

"I remembered it too, Liara." He said quietly over the silent squad comm. channel. "I too know these walls, I too have walked this floor…"

Jack summed things up in one word "Creepy"

Miranda replied with another word "Hallelujah."

They moved through a few more tunnels before they left the network, and Urz made a comment with his QWERTY keyboard on his holo-console that he'd brought up just now. "You know guys, that thing was literally not nearly as flexible as a Nydus Worm was… nor as spacious."

"True, Nydus Worms can accommodate Ultralisks…" Jacob said.

"What are Nydus Worms and Ultralisks?" Mordin asked, he still hadn't been told what Zerg were.

John sighed "We'll tell you later, Mordin, focus on the mission now."

EDI chirped up "New traffic on the Covenant Battle Net, the defence around the _Autumn_ is solid, they can't break through, but that doesn't mean they won't try and die… Wait, the Division Commander is really giving them hell!" She exclaimed "She's given the ACU command to Joker and gone somewhere… we'll be able to coordinate an effective resistance still, according to her. She's having a grand time… let's go kill the Covenant search groups in this area."

"Agreed… let's go." As they approached a rock formation, those crew members with LBRs changed them into Sniper Mode before beginning to trade fire with the Jackal snipers, armed with beam rifles, on the rocks, after of course deploying comm. jammers. The other troops handled the Grunts and Elites that emerged from the rocks. The beam rifles weren't bad, roughly on par with an Assault Mode bolt from an LBR, but the Jackals didn't have personal shields, only their big round shields, and those… weren't that tough anyways, and without personal shields they were very, VERY easy to kill with the rapid-fire Sniper Mode LBRs.

The next Covenant search group was near the river head in the area. They got ambushed by the active camouflaged Marines, and it wasn't even worthy of being called a fight despite none of the crew using psychic powers. "Okay, active camo makes this WAY too boring… let's fight without it. Wait… Active and Passive Camo off, we want them to see us coming." John ordered. It also meant a slight shield/field recharge boost.

EDI held up a hand suddenly "Wait, guys, I'm getting reports that the Division Commander has headed into Covenant territory alone… that's not good, let's finish up here and go get her back."

"Mom's not dumb enough to get captured, right?" James asked John.

"No she's not, probably rollicking around behind enemy lines killing ass right now." John stated.

They moved past to another structure, another Beam Emitter, and killed their way in, the Covenant not standing a chance since it was sixteen people in Coalition Marine Armour, versus a smaller number of them. Even if they had numerical superiority, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

"New traffic on the Covenant battle Net, I've found the Division Commander! She's aboard a Covenant CCS, the _Truth and Reconciliation_, one of the ships I thought I'd destroyed when I cut the main engine block and the weapons off…" EDI trailed off, obviously angry at her failure. "It touched down, i.e. almost crashed, on a desert plateau roughly three hundred kilometres down-spin."

"Well then what are we waiting for?"

* * *

><p>AN: Yep, there's a reason to go to the Truth and Reconciliation now…

Everything else will be updated after I destroy the "Uneven Elephant". REVIEW!


	13. To Reconcile Our Differences

A/N: GRR! Why do some people STILL think I'm skipping the Installation 04 battles? EVERYTHING (minus Keyes) WILL COME TO PASS!

The press conference with Ackerson is in the future relative to right now, so that won't be covered until AFTER the _Unyielding Hierophant_ events.

Halos as part of a galactic teleportation network? Um, aren't they supposed to be built for… I don't know, QUARANTINE of the Flood? The teleportation idea totally defeats the purpose right there. Also, please do not refer to the _Autumn_ as just the "Pillar", that's the UEF model of T2 Medium Armour, with superior protection to Cybran models, nearly enough to match the more expensive and powerful Ilshavoh T2 Assault Bot (still much less than the Obsidian) and with somewhat upgraded guns to be an even match with the Rhino. I have no desire for myself or anyone else to be even momentarily confused.

* * *

><p>Chapter 13: To Reconcile Our Differences<p>

_Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872_

"With all due respect Supreme Commander, my place is with my ship." Shipmaster Orna Fulsamee protested from where he stood in Thel Vadamee's current private conference room.

The Supreme Commander shook his head and clapped his old prank buddy around one shoulder plate "Orna, for the record, this war has enough dead heroes already, you're one of the more sensible Shipmasters or any ranking commander that I've known for a while other than me or Rtas. Don't go turning dumb on me."

"Understood, Supreme Commander—" Orna was cut off abruptly.

"Call me Thel, Orna, we've pulled enough shit together for that, haven't we?"

The Shipmaster could only nod "…Yes, yes we have… Understood, Supreme Commander, I shall remain aboard this ship while the Truth is undergoing repairs… and while whatever's been making crew members die randomly keeps killing."

"Good, remember that old Forerunner quote? 'Ten soldiers wisely led beat a hundred without a head.' You're a smart officer, conservation of officers seems like it'll matter more in this war than anything else… Bad officers have lost us too many battles already." He shook his head again "Call off the attacks on the Pillar of Autumn's landing zone, no point throwing away our troops for nothing, request authorization AGAIN to at least use our Plasma Chainguns and Torpedoes on that base, it's growing faster than a damned tumour ever could hope to…" Needless to say, that attempt, and all subsequent attempts to request permission, was denied by the Prophets.

* * *

><p><em>Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"Division Commander Shepard's signature is still inside the CCS-class… cruiser… hmm, seems they'd re-classified their ships… anyways, she's on the Truth and Reconciliation, the ship's holding position about three hundred meters above the other end of this plateau." EDI was saying, watching the data scroll across her helmet HUD (much safer that way, especially now that she had a body). They had taken one of the Geminis and were now on their way over, under full active camo and stealth.

"So we're going to QP Pack our way up?" Jack asked. "Other than you, Liara, you can just fly…"

"Indeed she can…" John stated "But there's a gravity lift that ferries troops and supplies, especially repair parts, between the ship and the surface, that's our way in."

There was a long silence "You chose it for the fact that we'll have to fight across a Covenant-packed plateau, right Battlemaster?" Grunt asked.

The Marine nodded his horned helmet once, his facial lights smirking "You got it. Alright everyone, engage active camo and passive stealth fields." That was different from the Inherent Passive Stealth of the armour, and all in all it made shield regeneration not as fast as it could be, though it took actually cloaking or boosting to reduce energy reserves. "Down we go!"

"Hey look, Covenant anti-infantry turrets!" EDI highlighted the Shade turrets (A/N: I am going with the Halo 3 design instead of the Halo 1 or 2.) on the HUDs of the crew "They'll be ineffective against us, but we can use them against the Covenant."

"Mirala, you want to use Dominate on those Grunts manning the turrets?" John asked, knowing Liara was not quite practiced enough at the ability to take over the mind of a species she had never seen mentally in person before.

"Sure thing…" Mirala's lights frowned a little on John's HUD (to the Covenant, she was effectively invisible and even if she had been her helmet would barely give off any light) before she stated "firing."

It was absolute chaos as Grunts in their Shade turrets opened up on the other Covenant before the Elites shot at them. Mirala chuckled as the Barriers that came with being mind-controlled by her blocked the first rounds and those shooting at the grunts were fired on. Still, the little creatures eventually died, and confused Covenant comm. chatter filled the air-waves.

Liara took things into her hands then, grabbing the Covenant troops in the area off the ground with a massed Lift before running over to and hopping into one of the Shades, using a Singularity to yank all the Covenant soldiers into one spot before using the horrifically inaccurate weapon to hose them down while they were being held helpless. It was a good way to, relatively speaking, avoid detection. Still, they managed to get a call off, and the Truth and Reconciliation's sensors began to reveal them.

The sixteen soldiers, one a Hallucination, moved on like ghosts, even while their cover was being eroded, until John held up a hand "Alright guys, no more camo, passive stealth will be enough to prevent solid locks from long range, let's go toe to toe…" John growled.

"Good, let them see me, and if anyone survived the shield world, let them quake in fear…" Liara smirked evilly, before blinking at the sudden outburst.

"Well my half-sister I guess it's just your Ardat-Yakshi side coming out…" Mirala stated simply. "We do tend to go a bit 'kill them, KILL THEM ALL' sometimes, don't worry, though, you won't ever feel that about John…" Mirala trailed off as they moved into the next area and came under fire from Shade turrets "Hmm, seems they upgraded their guns a bit… still, DIE!" She lobbed a Sonance Grenade that stuck to the front of the Turret's dome and vaporized most of it, scattering the rest. "There we go, about the others…"

"Already dealt with." Jedore said, kicking a Kig-Yar corpse she'd just perforated with a number of AP rounds from her Gauss LMG. "Anyone else think we should go back to a five-person squad dynamic?" There was a chorus of agreement "Or rather a four and two six-person squads, I don't think you need any other biotics with Liara on your squad, John."

"Sounds reasonable, after this, we're going back to small squads, this is too boring, so few enemies, so many guns to kill them…" John was saying.

Tali gave a warning "Covenant groups are pouring in from that clearing ahead."

John smirked "Well this will be interesting… no heavy weapons guys unless we see Hunters!" Those creatures were difficult to take down with normal infantry weapons in a reasonable time span (i.e. less than about five seconds). Still, using heavy weapons would ruin the turkey shoot with the other infantry, after all, it was already a turkey shoot…

Oddly, some of the Covenant actually got close enough for the crew to engage their newest weapons, plasma bayonets, and start slashing away in addition to firing their guns. The fact that the SMGs all had the blade either between the dual barrels or under the barrel in the case of the Phasic SMGs helped greatly, in both maintaining fire and slashing attacks. The biotics of the squad got tired of it soon enough and went to fist-fighting instead and throwing around Shockwaves that tore pieces and craters off the rock faces around them.

The squad took their time hacking their way laboriously through the Covenant presence on the plateau, most of who were turned toward the Gravity Lift instead of away from it. That was rather odd, but then again considering what Division Commander Hannah Shepard was most likely pulling up there… okay, so it wasn't odd, AT ALL.

* * *

><p><em>Truth and Reconciliation, Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

The aforementioned Division Commander was indeed pulling some stuff, such as turning Grunts she'd picked off via chest-shot into paint sticks. Their blood, being fluorescent, meant that once you pried the cranium off, or rather tapped it with armoured fingers until it shattered delicately, being careful to not get bone fragments inside, the brain was a good painting tool. She was just finishing up painting another motif when she noted the approaching Covenant contacts and cloaked again, standing in plain sight with her LBR ready, even though the Covenant wouldn't see it.

This bunch was made of Drones. They would be pesky, since they came in large numbers. Still, she could deal with them well enough. She rigged three Electron Grenades along the ceiling, attaching the Mine attachment, setting them to jump into the air away from their surface when triggered. If she'd glued them to the walls, she'd likely have made some craters… or even punched through, but this way it wouldn't do much other than EMP everything nearby and leave scorches on the walls.

AFTER that particular hallway was abruptly plastered with pieces of insectoid carapace… Hannah checked out the patterns. It seemed that the drones' shells were far, FAR softer than Zerg Carapace, and a whole lot more brittle too. Zerg armour was nearly impossible for anything softer than diamonds to get through and even Zerg bio-weaponry took a lot of hits to cut through the plating, unlike when they faced Terran neo-steel which made Zerg seem like oversized can-openers half the time (though Siege Tanks still took a number of Ultralisk whacks to get through one). Zerg armour also did NOT shatter easily, for example, Terran Gauss Rifles tended to glance off Zergling plating and only take off maybe a small chunk, unless it found a weak point. Hydralisk plating could stand up to a siege tank hit without shattering, though that was due to the Carapace being mostly ablative to explosive or highly penetrative damage. Plasma, especially plasma blade type weapons, was effective against the Zerg though.

It was uncommon to gather so many specimens of intact plates and tissues at once, since, well, Coalition weaponry and vehicles tended to have effects including but not limited to: Cooking, vaporizing, grinding, etc. Hannah grabbed some of the more intact Drone plates and shoved them in her quantum storage (playfully termed "Inventory" by most Marines) before moving on. It was after all one of the reasons she'd come here on her own, the others included the fact that without their heavy weapons the Covenant trying to dislodge the Pillar of Autumn was a laughable prospect at best, and she had not had ground combat for a LONG time. It was good to practice one's skills against an impotent enemy.

After all, by now her kill count was what? About five thousand Covenant on her own with various means and with quite a few thousand more tied up on the ground under the CCS nervously waiting to see if she'd ever come down? Oh, and she was tying up a LOT of attention, good times, for the Covenant at least, were over. Of course, she'd also secured a lot of good Intel, but that was secondary, relatively speaking.

* * *

><p><em>Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"Covenant Dropships are inbound…" Tali warned, her extended Radar having picked them up. EDI had thought it unnecessary to warn the crew yet since they were already on high alert.

The crew were about to grab their heavy guns when John waved the weapons down "Let's do this the easier way, the mental way."

"Makes sense, Jack, Liara, Mirala, Samara, you can each handle one, Miranda, Thane, Jacob, handle any surviving troops. The rest of us…" He paused "Will just sit here and keep an eye out for other things, Garrus, Mordin, set up your guns, if anything comes down that gravity lift, we'll show them what real anti-infantry turrets are like!"

"I think John just suggested the rest of us do nothing." Jedore said to Tali.

"Yes he did." The Quarian replied simply. "Even though we're right under the ship now, we might as well wait around to kill some more Covenant before going up that Gravity Lift."

"We'll need to ambush any comers at the Gravity Lift's loading zone as well as using the Lift to enter the ship." EDI stated as she strolled up. "Those Dropships should be here any time now…"

The Dropships didn't even make it to their standing area, barely making it over the cliffs before Warp fields tore them to scrap. Rather obviously, Liara did the best job at the ripping aspect of the job. All four wrecks were rolled into a big flaming ball of exploding scrap that rolled along the ground toward the Gravity Lift load zone and bowled over (squishing) the landing Grunts before they could even try to run after hitting the ground. "That was Liara's work, wasn't it?" Jack's words sounded more like a statement than anything else.

"Yes, yes it was…" Samara stated as they watched the slowly disintegrating ball of scrap continue smashing Covenant troops in the Gravity Lift, not even giving them a chance to dodge. Being somewhat Psi-sensitive, she could feel the signature of Liara's mind through her overwhelming power.

After they were finished whacking the Covenant with the ball of junk, when the Hunters came down and batted away/apart the ball of junk, the crew engaged the Covenant again. Hunter shields were quite durable, enough to shrug off several good hits from Light Plasma Cannon or Tomcat Autogun fire from Garrus and Mordin, but they were eventually overcome by sheer volume of fire and use of Sniper LBR Overcharge shots.

"It's boarding action time crew!" John announced once they finally took the big beasts down. If they'd used INLs or grenades one to a few shots each would be enough, but John had insisted on doing things the long and fun way…

"This is so damned slow!" Jack groaned as they took their sweet time moving up through the Gravity Lift.

"Yeah well, our armour, stealth and camo technology is above the Covenant, no reason to think anything else is gonna be different." Miranda shot back.

"Shut up cheerleader."

"She's just saying what she's observing, Jack, you were doing the same…" Jedore stated.

"Guys, stop it, I know you haven't had enough fighting for the last while, Sigma Octanus was too long ago, but we'll get plenty to shoot at inside that CCS, save your ire for them."

Tali gave a warning as the squad HUD Radars began filling with red and their HUDs showed the contacts above them "Contacts, lots of contacts!"

The squad grinned collectively "Excellent."

"Remember guys, no heavy guns or Sonance Grenades, it's too risky, their armour isn't fielded and it's outdated compared to what we have." John warned.

"We got it bro." James said lazily. "So we should split up?" he asked as they rose into the Covenant cargo hold and opened fire on the enemy soldiers immediately.

"Yes, Liara, Legion, Jedore, you're with me as Squad One, James, Jacob, EDI, Samara, Kasumi, Jack, Mordin, you're Squad Two, Tali, Garrus, Miranda, Mirala, Thane, Grunt, Urz, you're Squad Three. Yes, guys, that's also an outline of the command hierarchy in the squads." That meant leadership in the event of leader incapacitation. It was effectively based on the agreed-upon pecking order they had hammered out during the course of the past boring months, and balanced skills among the groups. "Biotics, save the juice packs for later, just in case, now let's roll!"

Tali's crew moved down the passage the incredibly irritating (until Liara got annoyed and turned them into a fine paste on the floor) Hunters had come through and she easily hacked the door… or rather its controls. Squad Three marched through, while John's crew moved down a side passage and Squad Two went the other direction, toward the stern of the ship instead of the bow.

John led the way for his squad as usual and moved down the side passage, shooting the few Grunts and Jackals he came across. Well, not that much shooting had to be done as the Grunts were effectively one-shot fire-starters, as the LBR Assault Mode bolts blazed into their methane tanks. By the time they were done venting enough to mix with the air and blow up the metal around the holes was still hot enough to light them off. That was wholly unlike the effect of Gauss LMG rounds… other than Incendiary munitions.

They chewed their way into another cargo bay over where Squad Three had passed already, the piles of corpses attesting to that. As they kept moving along the port side of the ship (Tali had called to say she was going starboard), John started to see signs of his mother's handiwork. After all, HANNAH SHEPARD WUZ HERE wasn't hard to miss, though the Covenant apparently did not understand what "WUZ" meant, as someone had scribbled "What is this?" underneath, though the question mark was dotted with a burn hole typical of LBR fire, along with a corona of blood sprayed in a ring around the hole.

* * *

><p><em>Truth and Reconciliation, Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

Tali's group entered a cargo bay on their side of the CCS just in time to see a Phantom Gunship, one of the Covenant's other troop-carrying arrangements, mostly used by Jiralhanae, enter the ship and disgorge a crew of Brutes, Jackals and Drones. "Search the ship for the intruders, let us show them the might of the Covenant!" The lead Brute shouted.

"Volley Electron Grenades on my mark, sticking, one second delay on impact, MARK!" Tali called over squad comms as the armoured soldiers moved silently into position and hurled the lethal implements of death at the Brutes. Unfortunately, not all of them died at once, and the survivors went into Rage…

That didn't last long as Miranda and Mirala crushed the ones charging them with their minds, and the others were similarly quickly dealt with. Tali put her fist through the face (and brain) of the one attacking her, the glorified gorilla's own haymaker not even shaking her with her armour holding firm to the ground and locking. The one Urz pounced on got a quick lesson of why even Protoss Zealots had a hard time beating Devouring Ones one-on-one. Though the enemy was larger, Urz had rather large blades, and even though it would take a while to crack through a Protoss Zealot's shields or plates with his slashes and stabs, the same could not be said of the unshielded and not all that well armoured Brute. The long scythe stabbed in through the creature's neck before the beast roared and grabbed Urz just before slamming him against the ground. The Devouring One barely even felt the impact with his armour on, not that his carapace would have felt it much anyway, and slashed back instead of stabbing, lopping the Brute's head off with one swipe of his long blades. The other survivors had been deal with similar fluidity, including use of Thane's SMG-mounted Plasma Bayonet, though that seemed rather ineffective as it wasn't as good for solid kills as it was for pain, and berserk Brutes felt little pain.

The crew smashed down the Covenant in the group before Tali started hacking through the other door with near-absurd ease, using her suit's advanced computers. Grunt and Urz were dismembering the dead Covenant, yelling "Get up so I can kill you again!" Or in Urz's case emitting chilling screeches.

However, they were most rudely interrupted by a pair of Hunters that shrugged off all the small-arms fire thrown at them by clever use of cover. Tali sighed "Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way…" She grabbed her flamethrower off her back (stowed there for convenience) and left Garrus to (much more slowly) continue the hacking.

Normally, charging a Hunter was even stupider than charging a YMIR considering Hunters were much better at cocking back their shields and swatting you, but in Tali's case, she only needed to get so close… before she opened up with a long gout of Purifying Flame. Sure, she was starting to get low on shields from the Fuel Rod Guns, but after she ducked a shot, she had enough "Health" to cook them before they could take anything off her structural fields. That was one of the vulnerabilities of targets that weren't sealed to vacuum and/or shielded, they were too easy to toast, despite the shield and armour being durable, modern flamethrowers were designed to almost flow around obstacles…

Now that the Hunters had been toasted, the squad could let their shields recover before they strolled through the opened door, which Tali had finished hacking after making seared eels.

* * *

><p><em>Near Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"No way, that's the same human female I saw on the Shield World!" Orna Fulsamee gaped at the screen showing footage from inside the ship that had been his… before it had gotten badly sliced up by that battleship the Coalition had sent to the Sacred Ring.

"What?" Thel's head spun around to look at his old friend.

"She's one of those humans we've seen have special abilities, and according to what we have seen she is the most powerful, what's more, that's just an image of her, not her actual body… how that's possible, I don't know."

"If I didn't know you, Orna, I'd suspect you had lost your mind." Thel said, blinking slowly.

"I would have thought so too, I even heard the Apex Installation on the shield world recognize her as Mistress T'Soni and that female," Orna pointed to another piece of footage and another female in the same type of armour but with her helmet wisely on "I think it is her from the distinctive paint markings on the armour, as Admiral Zorah."

"Forerunner structures recognized humans?" Thel wondered aloud.

Orna nodded "I do not know why, but it is why I don't really like this war… and that female with the powers is, above all else, the ONE reason I am now VERY glad I'm off my ship right now."

"What can she do? Those humans with powers can only attack a few groups of troops at once, right?" Thel asked.

"Not her, she is invincible, it seems, as she herself professed herself to be an image she created. Wherever she is, it is likely far away and you can imagine how much energy it takes to maintain such an image across vast distances, including physical combat capability…" Both the high-ranking males standing on the Commander's Podium shuddered a little at that thought "And she can summon powers so far beyond the other humans with powers that it makes them seem like helpless hatchlings. If she's on the battlefield, we're going to lose, I recommend pulling back the troops from the _Truth and Reconciliation_ right now. We can't possibly take them on."

Thel snorted "Don't be so defeatist Orna, if we pull back the troops, we can tug the ship out toward space and destroy it to kill the Coalition soldiers, even if that image is indestructible, being in space means she'll have to dissipate it, right?"

"Hmm, I guess that will work…"

* * *

><p><em>Truth and Reconciliation, Unknown Forerunner Ring World, January 16, 3872<em>

"We must be in the brig, these look like holding cells." Jedore commented "Is there any reason why every single one is jam-packed with dead Covenant bodies?"

"Mom, that's why, speaking of which, I think it's time to give her a call. Tali says she's been picking up Covenant fleeing the ship, they might try to self-destruct it or something." John mumbled the last part to himself before starting the call "Mom, we need to leave the ship now, let's get moving."

"Got it son." The Division Commander had been waiting for that "I've downloaded a lot of the Covenant's useful files, they call this ring Halo as well, apparently."

"One moment guys, Halo, according to the files you've forwarded to me, has some kind of deep religious significance, they think this thing is some kind of weapon, some vastly powerful weapon." EDI came over the comm., the sound of gunfire in the background along with frenzied yells of "DIE COVENANT!" and of course screeches of a pissed-off Devouring One.

"True, the Covenant kept saying whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the Universe." Hannah said, before she started downloading the schematic of the beam emitter John had found earlier, frowning "This thing looks too much like an extremely underpowered and a primitive version of the emitters in Black Sun for comfort. If this thing is a giant version of Black Sun, how the hell will they direct the beam? To both sides? Sorry, I'm rambling…"

"I see…" EDI said slowly, before continuing "I've intercepted a number of messages over the entire net, including the long-distance tap Joker's set up for me from the Autumn, about a search for a control room. I was thinking they might be searching for the bridge of one of those CCS-class ships we hacked to pieces above the ring, but they must be looking for Halo's control room…"

"Bad news, if Halo is a weapon, and it's on par with Black Sun, it should be able to totally shatter over seventy planets in one shot… all the Aeon and Cybran core worlds. I barely managed to prevent it from fully charging back at the Battle of Black Sun, by the way."

A voice suddenly echoed inside Kohn's head "With the correct delivery routines, that amount of energy in the form of lethal radiation should be able to wipe out all sentient life within… around one galactic radius."

* * *

><p>AN: I am aware that 25000 light years isn't that much, but if the installations can cover up to 2, and I've changed that, radii from the galactic center then the hexagonal pattern of 7 hexagons must have a edge length of 1 Galactic Radius to get that much coverage at the smallest points of the pattern. Ergo I am modifying things.

* * *

><p>There was a series of horrified gasps from the non-Coalition crew members before Liara asked "Where did that come from?" She asked over squad comms, the speakers all silent to deny Covenant sensors nearby, which they hadn't bothered EMP-ing, any intel.<p>

"Some sort of old memory, in my voice…" John shook his head to clear it. "Anyways, we have a new mission now, We need to beat the Covenant to Halo's control room."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Hannah was rather direct, already moving toward one of the shuttle bays. The group left the ship via QP Pack jumping out of a shuttle bay to the ground just before it began to be towed off. Seeing them depart, the tugs stopped and let the ship be, back to repairs… and wiping gore off the decks.

* * *

><p>AN: How does John remember the specifics of Halo? What is Forerunner tech when stacked against Coalition tech (it's not all inferior…)? Well, we'll see soon enough…

REVIEW!


	14. Command and Control

A/N: Why did Hannah go psycho-bitch on the Covenant? We'll find out. Also, there's a reason Forerunner tech is, other than world-building, crap. It will be revealed in good time (literally, that should give you a big hint).

Hey, you know, I may decide to take a break from this fanfic string for a while after I finish Reclaimers (mostly to wait for ME 3 and then adapt to that), maybe go explore some other fandoms like Pokémon or Legend of Zelda… Did anyone else notice how Princess Ruto's head when she is fully mature is, though much more attractive, of the same general shape as a Collector's? Think about it, two pairs of eyes (she has a pair on the outside of each of her head… things…), a head with a large flattened portion near the top which I can't even describe… That's just a bit disturbing… still, I like the Zora race for one main reason: Blueness.

* * *

><p>Chapter 14: Command and Control<p>

_Escape Gemini, En Route to CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo, January 16, 3872_

"Well, well, well…" Hannah Shepard smirked "As expected…"

"What is it Mom?" James asked from his seat next to Tali.

"After that display, the Covenant's starting to find it by the way, they're pulling back a little from the ring, everyone except their flagship that is." Hannah brought up the hologram "And that means I can sneak these two Dragonfly T2 Stealth Transports across the middle of the ring instead of around the outside, much faster that way. Oh, and did I mention that when I went on the Truth and Reconciliation, the Covenant reacted as I predicted, they moved a Corvette to unload its troops and investigate. I managed to sneak a Dragon Fly through that gap too. And now we wait until they get angry…"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"Sadly guys the 'Paragon' they put on warships isn't worthy of the name, at least in my opinion, only up to 2000 mass and 400,000 energy per second." Hannah commented off-handedly as they walked toward the _Autumn_ from where they'd been dropped among the defences, which consisted of a full-sized base around the Autumn, which had landed near the shore of a major sea. There was a small set of naval factories off the coast in addition to the complexes of mass fabricators and power generators on-shore. "And it's too bad we're too busy holding this fresh wave of Covenant warships at Reach and a dozen different other battlefields, some wins, some losses, but we're making them pay for every millimetre. According to High Command, they can't send any help because everything we have, and I mean EVERYTHING, even the patrol groups" Those were the old Hunter Squadrons "Is being thrown into the Battle of Reach as soon as they can get there. According to the latest reports the Covenant is also steadily getting reinforcements, so we're basically slowly grinding each other to scrap metal in a battle of attrition, and we all know what attrition favours…"

For the record, a normal Paragon, the structure, could pull up to 10,000 mass and 1,000,000 energy points per second. Ergo the Paragon-type design mounted on warships was, though far superior to typical generators or fabricators, still underpowered considering the vast amount of power required to run the ship and quickly build its units. Therefore Hannah's establishment of the base could only draw on the _Autumn's_ resources to a certain extent. Other than the fact that she had, from the very beginning, a Tier 3 air patrol force/strike force to use, and could afford to build T3 Mass Fabricators right away, her base-building was almost typical of ACU battles where the Commanders went in alone or, as was more often the case, in small squads.

So far, there wasn't any Covenant _wreckage_ near the base. On the other hand, Covenant vapour could easily be found near the _Pillar of Autumn's_ current base for certain obvious reasons. The only problem was that the Covenant, at least this commander, was smart about SMD work and kept swatting strategic missiles down with plasma projector fire, careful to keep the beams away from Halo.

* * *

><p><em>Covenant Fleet, Near Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

Hannah Shepard had no clue how bad of an earful Thel Vadamee was getting from the Prophets every time he stopped her from driving the fleet away by using plasma projectors on the missiles she launched (she gave up after the first couple). She did, however, have a very good idea as to how freaked out the Covenant forces were after discovering the new internal décor of the Truth and Reconciliation. The intercepted transmissions had been what she had been bargaining for. Anywhere else, she'd have gone straight to a war crimes tribunal, hell, she'd hold her own and slap herself in jail, but the Covenant had committed such atrocities to civilians in the two ICs that the Coalition hadn't managed to protect that unlimited war was authorized upon military targets that were not surrendering to soldiers.

Yes, you heard right, normal units no longer accepted surrender from Covenant troops, and soldiers had to be visible to the Covenant to accept surrender, otherwise acceptance was optional. But regardless of her usually paragon-like ways, Hannah Shepard knew EXACTLY when to be a Renegade and manipulate her enemy to her own ends. She had after all learnt from the best. Avatar of War Rhiza and Grand Crusader Ariel Williams were the toughest Aeon commanders in existence, and Rhiza had told her of her fair share of cleansings, so Hannah knew how to be merciless when she had to be.

"This… these atrocities are…" One of the fleet's shipmasters, was nearly speechless (the rest were actually speechless) as they surveyed the footage from the unlucky teams sent in to recon the Truth and Reconciliation "I can't believe this… madness… we must cleanse this filth!"

"Don't be so hasty, Shipmaster, though we must avenge these deeds we must do it intelligently." Thel Vadamee stated calmly, looking at the cameras, knowing full well that the horrors shown were nothing when put next to the Covenant's deeds on the few human colonies they'd managed to find. They were lucky to not have found bundles of corpses wrapped in their own entrails yet, Thel had heard of Covenant troops doing that sort of thing… though most of the troops responsible had been eviscerated within a day of their war crimes by Coalition forces arriving on the scene. "Move these five cruisers" he selected them on his command interface "into the ring and fire into this Pillar of Autumn's perimeter. I'm authorizing use of plasma projectors. That ship's shielding can take it without trouble, though Halo might not take it as well. Still, these losses we are suffering are too much; we can afford a few burn marks on the ring, better that than to let it fall into Coalition hands…"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"This…" Hannah said slowly as she watched the Covenant cruisers draw closer to the ring's center in preparation for firing on her position, lined up in a neat line above her ship "THIS is why I sent engineers here, here and here."

Thel Lodam narrowed his eyes at one of the locations Hannah had pointed out "That's where you sent that first Dragon Fly of units you smuggled past them… When they moved that Corvette…"

"Yep, and this place across the ring from us is where I sent the other two, that third spot I claimed a while ago as a major firebase. Now witness the power, of the Forerunners!" AT Lodam's inquisitive look she added "I used my engineers to capture and reprogram some Beam Emitters, they're reasonably powerful… watch this." As the Covenant ships began firing their plasma projectors at the towering shields of the _Pillar of Autumn_, settled where it was on the Halo's surface, she hit the fire button for the Beam Emitters.

Eight beams, weakened as the primary systems had been fried when they had been captured, met at the center of Halo. Without the standard containment energy matrix that was required to store energy for a normal firing (and of course a small fraction of the total power of an actual firing), they met and splattered across whatever was in the middle. Unfortunately for the Covenant ships, that was where they were, since they were worried about Mavor or Strategic Missile fire from the as of yet still hidden firebases around the ring. They were eviscerated instantly, and Hannah allowed the Beam Emitters to recharge slowly after their discharge, before impatiently ordering Engineers to support them and pump energy into the capacitors.

Lodam's mandibles were gaping "This… this is why they call you a tactical genius, to use such brutality to goad the enemy into doing what you want. Thel Vadamee, the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, the ships we face now, he is a good commander to have only sent a few ships to test the waters, but he… he is nothing compared to you."

* * *

><p><em>Thel Vadam's Flagship, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"By the Gods… they've learnt how to use the Beam Emitters we long suspected to be the core of Halo's power…" Thel hissed almost to himself "We've been misled, brothers, those awful spectacles we witnessed within the _Truth and Reconciliation_ were specifically for the purpose of luring us in so that they may use the Beam Emitters they have no doubt captured. From this point onward, no Covenant ship shall cross through the ring, Supreme Commander's orders." As his subordinates conveyed the message, Thel looked down at his boots in contemplation "She commanded us, controlled us, like we were puppets… not to mention scaring the crap out of the Unggoy and Kig-Yar. That's not a good sign… then again maybe that is why she has such a reputation."

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

After the squad finished realizing just why Hannah did what she did and applauded her, they headed for the same conference room they were in now. EDI had found new and useful intelligence data. "The Covenant believe that what they call 'The Silent Cartographer' is somewhere under THIS Island." EDI's pointer tapped decisively down on the holo-map as it zoomed in and highlighted the island in question "The Cartographer is a map room that will lead us to Halo's control center. The island has multiple structures." She circled several of the cream-coloured boxes that indicated neutral structures. "One of them must contain the map room. Our Spooks haven't found out which one it is yet, must be under a shield of some sort, Forerunner building materials can't block out our scans, but their shields, if incorporated into the structures, can."

"Great, so how's the area?" John asked.

"We haven't opened fire on it yet, but we have fielded naval assets, Siren-class cruisers with a couple Salem-class destroyers, to be exact." With the new upgrades to the ships, Continentals could now pick them up, either two sub-types or one surface ship per Continental, though they need to be below Tier 3. "We can't afford levelling those structures if we want to find the control room. A few Mermaids are successfully jamming any and all Covenant communications." Since the beginning of the Covenant War, Deceivers and Mermaids had been modified slightly to be able to jam all transmissions that could be jammed, fortunately, Coalition transmissions did not fall under that category.

John nodded "Alright, Squad One, with me, we're going to drop on the Covenant's little party… EDI, the fleet can secure the sea and skies, yes?"

"I wouldn't quite call it a fleet, being only two Sirens and two Salems, plus a Mermaid, but yes, we can secure the area." EDI replied.

"Great, Squads Two and Three, EDI and the Division Commander will find assignments for you to wreak havoc, Squad One, we've got to move out quickly. EDI, you're off active duty now, stay with Mom."

The AI in semi-human form inclined her head "Certainly John." The crew them proceeded to move out and split up, though Mirala still got a promise from her half-sister to send some time talking after the mission and the after-mission was over.

* * *

><p><em>Silent Cartographer Island, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"Heh, they really are blind aren't they?" John commented sarcastically as the Gemini dropped the crew off. The Salems had been in plain sight, as had the Sirens and Mermaid, from the shore. However, with Active camouflage engaged as per standard, units were about as visible as a fart on the wind, and to the Covenant, they only saw tranquil sea in every direction. "Well, let's eliminate them first. Stay under active camo until I say so, guys." The group got into position before John ordered the attack. What followed was a flurry of fire from various Coalition small-arms tearing the Covenant to pieces before they could react. The newest upgrades to the Mark Three weapons made them… still Mark Three, though that was because the designers didn't want to call it Mark Four without a big performance jump. It also only affected the weaker small-arms, not Sniper Mode LBRs or heavy weapons; ergo the designers wanted the "generations" to be unified.

"Well that was a pointless waste of life." Liara muttered as they killed the last few Covenant troops, Jackals who'd formed an over-lapping shield circle in an attempt to survive long enough to run. Then the group switched off camo because the fight was just too lopsided to be worthwhile otherwise.

"This whole war has been pointless, Liara." Jedore growled as she shot some corpses a few more times to "make sure they were dead". She looked up after smashing a Jackal's head under her armoured boot. "They've glassed enough Independent Colonies and even a few Coalition colonies. Their military deserves everything we can throw back at them and more."

"We do not concur." Legion said monotonously "This war has objectives for both sides, ergo there are 'points' to this conflict. Therefore it is not pointless."

"Right, Legion, you're right…" John intervened before Jedore could give the Geth a good right hook. "There is a point to this, see this?" He picked up a piece of glass, formed by Covenant plasma fire "This is why we fight, to stop the glassing. Let's get to work."

"We concur." Legion agreed quickly, moving after Shepard-Commander and the Shadow Broker Avatar before Jedore-Soldier could inflict physical harm on himself.

"Jackal snipers, on the rocks above us, there, dealt with." Liara said as the sound of bones and plating crunching reached their audio sensors. The little smirk she had made it known to everyone that her mind was the one responsible. "Let's move on…"

"There, in the cliff wall, I'll bet the Silent Cartographer is somewhere inside that facility!" Jedore called, pointing out the building in the cliff wall ahead before she extended her LBR and started firing on the Covenant troops along with John and Legion's sniper fire. It didn't take much work for the Covenant to see where the beams, a light tint of red in the air, were from. In actual fact, the beams were in the high infrared spectrum, but the energy was enough that some spilt over due to heating of air. The covenant tried their best to return fire, but since it only took from one to three shots to drop a Covenant soldier (three if it was a Jackal and the shield popping knocked them to a side far enough for the second to miss, Elites took two, only two), and an LBR in Sniper Mode could get off three bolts per second, it wasn't much of a challenge.

"They're already inside! We need to get in there quick, before they discover the location of the Control Center!" Liara exclaimed, squashing more Covenant with her mind effortlessly.

"You know, I think I'm a bit creepy for getting slightly turned on by that display of might…" John thought aloud.

"We concur." Legion supplied helpfully.

"Before you even start, Commander, you said that out loud." Jedore said absently as she watched another Elite's head explode through her scope. "And yes, it's a bit creepy. I hope you enjoy getting dominated after this." She looked up after nailing the last Covenant in her firing arc, a Grunt which went up in a fireball once its methane tank was ruptured.

And of course, Jedore promptly got a whack in the back of the helmet. "I am NEVER going to try dominating him!" Liara stated quietly "if my Dominate ability works on him then he'd be dead very, very soon, not the desired outcome."

"Can we get a move on now?" John butted in, well, faceplate-ed in, but same idea. "We need to, as you said earlier, Liara, get in there quick."

Jedore looked away for a moment then did a double-take "Anyone else see what I see? A number of air contacts are closing in over the sea…" He HUD had lit up the grey triangles in the distance, which the radar of the Sirens had picked up already.

"I'm already dealing with it." EDI said over the comm. as one of the Sirens' Heavy Nanodart battery (the Siren they could see on their side of the island hanging out just off the shore) shifted slightly before loosing a fusillade of anti-air munitions. The Spirit Dropships required only one shot or maybe two each to go down in fragments, which, though not quite Nanite-sized, were still small enough to rule out survivors.

They proceeded into the facility, shooting their way in… and shaking dust off the ceiling when they accidentally stuck a support strut with a Sonance Grenade that Liara had grabbed off John's bandolier instead of the Electron Grenade she'd been trying to grab. When the dust settled, they saw the strut hewn through but the building still fine, for now. "Let's not do that again." John said slowly.

"Hallelujah" Jedore rolled her eyes as they walked past the broken strut and the dead Covenant that had dove behind it trying to avoid the grenade but found that much to their misfortune the wrong grenade meant their cover was a fragmentation device waiting to happen.

"The Covenant are trying to put up a fight…" John started as his over-shield dropped by over half from two Hunter Fuel Rod Gun shots, rolling behind cover like the worm colonies across the room were.

"Want me to squash them like worms?" Liara asked as the two sides traded fire, the Hunters having firepower superiority due to the Crew not using heavy weapons or grenades for fear of roof collapses.

"No, we'll wear them down with time…" And so they did, after something on the order of fifteen Sniper LBR bolts per rifle plus more Assault Mode bolts, the Hunters finally went down in puddles of orange blood, rather akin to Krogan blood in coloration… "There, done, and… let's wait for our shields to recharge a bit first."

"Life would be so much simpler if you just let her do all the work…" Jedore grumbled as they sat down, took off their faceplates (the latest armour sets allow for faceplate removal by the user for increased comfort and convenience, especially when putting the helmet on) and started eating snacks. Using hands and chewing on granola bars just felt different from the food dispenser in the armour, not in the least because the latter only gave nutrient slush which was rather bland and unappetizing.

"I don't agree, it would be so boring after a while…" Liara said, tapping her toes in the puddle of orange mush that was pulverized flesh, next to her feet. She watched the goo slide off her avatar's surface and go back to the ground as she made that leg semi-substantial, still able to hold the weight of the part that was substantial but unaffected by such stains and sprays. Then she looked down and noted all the splatter marks she'd acquired since coming over. As an avatar, there was no auto-clean program in the structural fields like in actual armour; ergo she had to think it to clean herself… The fact that the gore fell through her avatar the moment she thought to and splattered on the ground as she became more substantial again was interesting… She put that aside for now; the mission took priority at the moment over wondering how her avatar could phase into and out of reality like that.

"My analysis indicates the map room should be at the bottom floor of this facility, let's keep moving." John suggested. They got up, sealed their armour again and moved on. They came to a slope leading down to an open door, with a group of Covenant, including a gold-armoured Zealot—John had to remind himself they were talking about the Elite variety, not the Protoss—standing guard. Before they could bring up their weapons and open fire, the door slammed shut and locked.

"Interesting…" EDI said over the comm. "It seems we've underestimated the Covenant's understanding of Halo's systems, they've locked the doors and I don't think we want to risk a cave-in by volleying Nanodarts at it. That room back there doesn't seem to have too much in the way of structural support… though I think Forerunner material could take it."

"So what are you recommending EDI? Do we have anything that can unlock this door without blowing the room and whatever might be in there up?" John asked.

"Well, we can probably find a security override somewhere… let's move along the shore of the island, there's a path into the interior a little ways up." Jedore stated, looking at a map.

"She's right, Shepard." EDI confirmed "marked the building that's probably the security sub-station with a nav-point."

* * *

><p><em>Silent Cartographer Island, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"Use the holo panel to shut down the security system." EDI added helpfully, before John did a double-take toward the panel with the nav-point on it. It seemed somewhat… dysfunctional. The fact that it had been hit with a Fuel Rod Gun shot's splash damage didn't help the old machine's functionality.

"Oh fuck… let's try this… wait, why the hell does it say Unlock in English? I mean, it's almost insane that the Quarians, Asari and humans use the same language, but Forerunners? Am I missing something here?" John asked, waving his arms about, checking scans for hostiles turned up nothing, so he jammed his armoured finger down on the "Unlock Map Rooms Doors" button. Sadly, the hologram decided to fail there, as his finger went straight through "Oh crap…" He took his helmet off and began yelling at the thing, since for some reason Forerunner technology tended to work with humans… "My name is John Shepard, I need to get in the Map Room, CAN YOU OPEN THE MAP ROOM DOORS?"

A static-filled voice came through "Authorized user detected, unlocking Map Room doors immediately. Welcome back, Master Shepard."

John facepalmed "It's not just Tali and Liara who are apparently special, huh? It's like fate or someone arranged all this…" he shook his head to clear it, remembering what happened the last time someone tried saying something similar "Let's get moving, now…"

EDI rolled her eyes as she sent a message "More aerial bogies incoming, Sirens having a field day with them. Careful, Stealth Elites up ahead, kill them quickly, there's not much time too lose, your mother wants to be finished dealing with this ring by the end of three days at the most, she's anxious about how Reach is going in her absence. Communications from here seem difficult, there's a constant Storm in the area, centered here as the Eye, it's like there was some massive energy discharge in the past… actually, maybe it was what made the Quantum Rift possible, weakening the background of space long before Black Sun was ever imagined… hmm…"

"Maybe we should deal with this thing first?" John asked tentatively.

"Yes, that's right. We SHOULD finish this particular fight first." EDI said hurriedly, nodding her head.

After battering their way down some VERY poor defensive terrain that wasn't worthy of the name, the crew reached the holo-panel after much plasma bayonet slashing, SMG combat, and of course Covenant jelly manufacturing by a certain all-powerful Ardat-Yakshi. "That holo-panel should activate the map and allow you to download everything…" EDI started, before John started the download and EDI frowned "There isn't that much data for how complex this installation was, seems most of it is just… empty air or solid slabs, how horribly inefficient… I was done downloading the data from pretty much the moment I started the download, John, we should go here for the Control Center. If I've interpreted this correctly, it seems to be part of some sort of temple or shrine. Interesting, a shrine seems an odd place to put such a significant installation."

John and Liara shivered slightly, their eyes met, and another memory from a time long gone passed into their minds.

* * *

><p><em>A long, long time ago in a place far, far away…<em>

"I know the damned Senators were idiots, but I never expected them to be THIS stupid, disguising the Control Room as a shrine?" John punched the desk incredulously.

"Well, I did warn them that it was dumb." Liara shrugged helplessly, her brown hair shifting a bit on her shoulders.

He started pacing again, nodding "You're right, smaller things can be disguised but what really matters needs a huge defence complex, a shrine isn't going to do shit."

"I know, but by the time I noticed the problem they'd already put it in the plans for Installation 04, and it had already been built and wired up…" She said, running her hands through her hair in irritation.

"Damn it… let's hope it just makes it easier for us and not the Flood…" John said, shaking his head,

* * *

><p><em>Silent Cartographer Island, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"That was a very weird memory, something about our pasts talking to each other about the folly of putting the Control Room disguised as a shrine of all things, alright, now we KNOW that thing is the Control Room, let's get moving."

"We have contacted Hannah Shepard" Legion finally decided to talk "She has given us permission to head to the Control Room ASAP. WE should get moving now… Alert: Covenant hostiles have retaken upper levels, we must fight our way up."

"Great, let's get moving." John growled as he seized his LBR and lit up the plasma bayonet, gripping the weapon almost like a spear as the group re-engaged active camo and moved up the ramps. Silent deaths repeated themselves many times over as they moved up through the complex like wraiths…

* * *

><p><em>Thel Vadamee's Ship, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

"Why didn't you tell me something was wrong at the Cartographer?" Thel barked at the officer in question, who was cowering before the might of the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice. "You should have known better than to throw more soldiers to their deaths there! As soon as comm. jamming started your men should have evacuated. As for how they'd know to evacuate, you should have included it in your mission briefings… you did, right?"

"Uh…"

Thel facepalmed and sighed "Get out of my sight, Field Master, you have a lot to learn about fighting the Coalition… it's just the fact that they want to tie us up, and the Hierarchs are letting them do that, that they haven't totally booted us off the Ring yet."

* * *

><p>"These coordinates… for insertion are underground, EDI." Legion commented.<p>

"Yep, and the Covenant wouldn't expect an aerial insertion from underground, would they?"

"Well I never expected myself to jump down a deep hole for kicks but whatever floats your boat, EDI." John shrugged before jumping down the hole in question.

"The Covenant did a thorough seismic scan, Halo is honeycombed with deep tunnels that circle the whole ring. It's not as solid or as strong as we expected it, which means we can't deploy strategic missiles unless we want to wreck it." EDI explained as they descended, Liara simply floating down as she moved her avatar with her mind alone. Sometimes, it was enough to strike John dumb with just how powerful she was, this was one of those times. Both suspected it had to do with her past lives.

* * *

><p><em>Control Room, Halo, January 16, 3872<em>

What followed was a long, tedious string of canyons (many of which were oddly snowy…), and a lot of complaining from EDI that she couldn't find any paths spacious enough to move units through. Of course, they eventually made it up the structure that was the Control Room and started downloading data from it… That was while hearing about how the other teams were rolling around the ring having fun and mowing down Covenant and everything else that got in the way i.e. trees, bushes, a sea or two, islands, etc.

"Oh god… no, no, NO!" EDI was muttering furiously to herself "This can't be! The Covenant think they've found a weapons cache… stop them before they release it!"

"What is it?" John asked urgently.

"It seems that Dyson Sphere wasn't the only place where the Flood existed after all… do all major Forerunner installations have them?" EDI wondered the last part aloud "Regardless, we cannot allow the Flood to escape. If you get down there and find them already loose, pull out and we'll clear the area with Strategic Bomber carpet-bombing…"

The squad was running outside for a pick-up by a Gemini when John thought to ask "Are we using Ahwassas?"

Hannah Shepard replied instead with a grim look on her face "No, modern Ahwassa munitions with newest models far too powerful, could crack the Halo's internal structure slightly, Revenants will do. When we leave this ring, we'll give that area a good YO-ing. The Flood must not get loose!"

"We are headed there now."

"Unfortunately the other groups are still tied up, so you'll have to go it alone, son, the bombers are en route but this ring is rather large… and the Covenant ships will fire if we leave the atmosphere. They'll take a while to get there, so I need to confirm if the Flood has been released or not. Good luck… really wish we had some Nydus Worms around, too bad Urz can't secure Zerg reinforcements for us, as Kerrigan's still a bit too busy…" The transmission cut there, leaving the three people and one avatar in silence, zipping through the night falling across Halo as it continued on its orbit of Threshold.

* * *

><p>AN: Yeah, too lazy to write the Assault on the Control Room. It was really tedious and didn't allow for character development since John's Squad One is too compact.


	15. We Meet Again

A/N: Who can spank Hannah? Ariel Williams can, she is equal in rank to Hannah and they occasionally get together for some "girl's time" i.e. When Hannah wants some stress relief and Ariel gets tired of being dominant most of the time (Aeon men are known to prefer being submissive). Of course, Eric, Ariel's husband, (yes, The Little Mermaid reference…) is not in a position to do anything about it (like the Cybran solution with Black Sun). Every once in a while (this is rare) Hannah feels sorry for him and lets him join in, thus he really is not inclined to do anything about it (like the proposed Aeon way of using Black Sun that Princess Rhianne had once wanted to use). Remember, 40-something is VERY young in Coalition society…everyone thinks that now the Wars are over they can expect at least a good four hundred or so years, though they mature at the same ages as today's people (Cybrans slightly earlier, especially mentally).

Also, Liara might be powerful, but raw power sometimes just does not cut it. She needs to learn control, a LOT of control, for what I have in mind for her.

* * *

><p>Chapter 15: We Meet Again<p>

_Swamp Near Flood Containment Facility, Halo, January 17, 3872_

Night had fallen now, and the _Autumn's_ time was also in the night cycle as Squad One trudged through the undergrowth, their Gemini having flown just a wee bit too high and thus become susceptible to two Plasma Torpedoes up the ass (after the first two took the specially-reinforced shield of the "escape craft" down). Sure, the weapons had been nerfed somewhat and the cost increased to fit in the shield generators on top of the upgrade options that had become prolific among Coalition units, but the extra shields weren't THAT strong (normal shields could have stood up to one torpedo). Upgrades were generally not quite worth the mass/energy cost but always used just to cram more combat capability in a smaller, more nimble formation or a more efficient unit count in large-front battles where dozens of medium-sized taskforces had to act at once. It was especially important in defence lines, as more firepower/durability/range could be crammed into a thinner, less splash-prone or easier stealthed/shielded line.

The swamp was such that no one tried to change their armour from the usual "Full EVA/NBCP Protection" settings (NBCP = Nuclear, Bio, Chemical, Psychic). They were all focused on nothing the surroundings, namely the Covenant soldiers in the distance fleeing in retreat from some building. They were all Jackals and Grunts for some reason… no Elites or Brutes, or Hunters for that matter, though the latter probably wouldn't have fit inside that Flood Containment Facility as it looked just a bit too small for comfort of the big beasts, hell, if they'd brought Raider Armour that probably wouldn't have fit either.

"Alright guys, while Squad Two is busy raiding some Covenant camps and Three is… firebombing the inside of a Covenant Cruiser we just disabled with one of the Pillar's Mavors when it came too close…" Hannah frowned "I hope Grunt doesn't hurt himself using those Grunts for methane canisters to toss around… oh well, you know what we're here for, get a confirmed Flood contact and see just how much of the Ring we have to carpet-bomb to get rid of them." Strategic Bomber munitions were mid-kiloton yields i.e. around 60 kilotons each nowadays depending on desired yield, ergo it would more than suffice to cleanse this area.

John acknowledged with a nod and "Understood Mom."

They came across an abandoned Covenant Uplink Crate next to a flipped-over and wrecked Shade turret which was in turn near a crashed Spirit Dropship. That increased the chances of Flood having been here to nearly certain, but then again, if this "Halo" had Sentinels like the Dyson Sphere had, it might just have been the Sentinels finally thinking the Covenant were intruders and attacking them. Then again, the contacts in the distance, within Radar but not in Omni range, were ground "soldier" icons, not even "unit" icons (which would denote larger contacts i.e. Hunters, Wraiths, etc. as opposed to Ghosts, infantry, etc.), so they could have been those Combat Forms encountered on the Dyson Sphere. Then again, they could have not been, maybe some sort of Sentinel was moving around on land instead.

A few Jackals and Grunts ahead provided some outlet for the Squad's collective (minus Legion) anger at their shuttle being shot down and being forced to wait for the bomber fleet to arrive for a lift. The log bridge across a small river however wasn't worth trying to cross, ergo the group jumped from one bank to the other easily with the armour's help. To the right, in the distance, they picked up several contacts within the extended Radar (thanks to Coalition stealth being too good, against everyone else Radar/Omni was much better in range) coverage they had, but as they weren't close enough for Omni they couldn't be identified. There was the distinctive sound of Covenant plasma weapons in the distance, in addition to orange contacts—neutral-hostile—firing on the Covenant somewhere ahead. They weren't equipped with friendly transponders ergo the hostile part, and the neutral was because weapons fire was detected as being exchanged between them and the solid red enemy (Covenant) contacts.

The red contacts began to run away, and the orange ones retreated… John noted that just before he and the rest of the crew silently settled into positions "Fire at will!" He barked, before he even finished six Coalition Infantry guns, two SMGs, three LBRs and a Gauss LMG had opened up on the fleeing Jackals and Grunts—who had been running directly at them. Laser bolts from the Laser SMG and Battle Rifles cut through the brush effortlessly and toppled one soldier after another, lighting off methane clouds that hissed from dying or dead Grunts. Gauss Light Machine Gun rounds chattered into the armour and bodies of the small Covenant infantry, sawing into and through them. Phasic SMG rounds from Liara's gun blasted large chunks out of their targets in a fashion typical Phasic SMG rounds did not. _That was odd… wait, how was it that her avatar's weapons could deal real damage?_ John wondered.

She heard his thought, apparently, since she responded with "My weapons are operating on a psychic basis, I can only keep bolts travelling for a short distance but the psychic disruption damage they do is quite good. If you want me to do longer-range work you'll have to give me a real gun, but be warned, I can't store things in this avatar, no Quantum Storage."

John nodded appreciatively "Huh, we'll keep that in mind Liara, here's a laser pistol if you have to do ranged work." The only thing that prevented the thing from being classed as a sniper (laser weapons had VERY long theoretical ranges even in atmosphere) was its low power and small size. It had a scope and everything else that came with a sniper rifle after all…

Once they'd mown down the Covenant and their shields had recovered, they walked up to the Flood Containment Facility's entrance "There's no one here." Jedore commented.

"Statistical probability of Flood release as cause of Covenant behaviour calculated at 89.9999 percent, rounded down." Legion stated. "Recommend precautionary evisceration of this area."

John agreed "We know the drill, but those Strategic Bombers are gonna take another forty minutes to get here." And of course, being in the ring's atmosphere meant the Covenant wouldn't shoot at said flight of sixty Revenants and fifteen Geminis. "Let's look inside, we've got to get to the bottom of this, maybe find out why the hell the Forerunners would have a containment facility on this ring, a facility that the Flood could break out from."

"I think that lift's for us." Jedore pointed out at a lift that was eerily waiting for them. The elevator label next to it was splattered with Covenant blood but still legible as "ELEVATOR" and the lone call button was labelled "DOWN" "Why the hell would a Forerunner facility have signs in English?"

"Beats me, but let's go in there anyways, if it comes down to it, we can always INL our way out… though it'll take a LOT of Nanodarts." John said, looking over his shoulder at the weapon in question.

"Well, I can always tear us a hole… or Recall you guys and ask the Coalition for a lift over to this Halo place after I nab you guys off to Hagalaz." Liara said lightly, teasingly, though everyone knew she was perfectly serious.

* * *

><p><em>Flood Containment Facility, Halo, January 17, 3872<em>

"This place is FILLED with them…" John growled as he shot yet ANOTHER Jackal's shield out and then blew the avian alien's head off with a fresh burst of LBR bolts, very glad that Coalition weapons normally powered themselves off armour Quantum Cores, a technology designed to effectively never run out so long as the balance of entropy and order of both the Quantum Realm and their universe stayed roughly functional. In other words, the thing would last as long as the universe, for if the balance tipped too far, well, the universe and the Quantum Realm directly overlapping/parallel to it would both end. That went for Coalition units as well, hence why they were typically reclaimed after every battle and the mass re-injected into the planet in all but the most combat-prone sectors where a few units were kept around as a guard force at all times along with a few small bases. Still, one could only do so much without ACU garrisons, and those weren't used since command became simply too inefficient and transmissions too easily disrupted if they were constantly in the field.

"Statistical probability of Flood Release now at 98.9999 percent." Legion droned again. "Rounded down, that is."

John sighed "We get the point, Legion, wait, you're wrong, it's 100 percent."

"Why?" Legion asked simply.

"That's why." Jedore pointed up at the green-yellow substance, the Flood equivalent of Creep, falling from the roof.

"Well let's get down and see if there's any explanation why the Forerunners kept Flood here. We still have twenty minutes before the bombers get here after all." Liara stated simply as they moved on, entering a large room blasted with Covenant scorch marks and the tell-tale signs of claws… Combat Forms had been here before. Somehow, her mind could feel the taint of Flood in the area.

There were no open doors here, and instinctively John boosted up to the second floor before heading to a door marked with a gigantic red neon sign over it that said "FLOOD CONTAINMENT LABS, DANGER!" The rest of the squad followed, ignoring the sign as well as the big octagonal, almost comical STOP signs next to the door.

"This door was forced open." Legion stated bluntly. "The one ahead has also been forced open by the Covenant. Attempt to close detected in hacking mechanisms but failed. Most likely explanation: Flood Containment Breach, all 1,183 Programs concur in this."

"Well, we have a reason, now let's check the damned labs out and see if the Forerunners had any reason to hold the Flood here. Remember, gauss pellets are more effective than lasers most of the time." John stated, grabbing an Electron Grenade and slapping it to the jammed door that was into the lab proper from the room they were in right now. It went off with a large explosion and the group fanned into the room, weapons, mostly Gauss weapons now, scanning the room for potential threats, noting the masses of confirmed Flood contacts beyond each door, their sensors penetrating the flimsy barriers and picking up the signatures of Infection Forms and Combat forms.

"Lay down a minefield of Electron Grenades, we can't let them get out alive, I'm going to check for data." John ordered coolly, shortly thereafter the floor, littered with Covenant corpses, blood and weapons, became home to dozens of grenades sticking and waiting for delayed proximity detonation with hostiles. John made his way over to a control panel "Let's see, the Forerunners wanted to study the Flood so they could make better weapons than a simple Scorched Earth strategy… looks like my theory about this Halo might be right after all, a Scorched Earth strategy weapon, damn, wait, I'm not picking up anything about mass fabrication, the Forerunners had basic material shaping… but no mass fabrication, quantum energy generation or nanolathing? What madness is this?" John asked in disbelief "They rely on a Gas Mine in Threshold's atmosphere for reactor fuel? Wow… they can build mega-structures, hell, an entire mini Dyson Sphere, but they can't NANOLATHE? HOW LONG DID THEY TAKE THEN?"

"Calm down Shepard." Jedore growled in irritation.

"She's right you know, though my estimate would be 'a stupidly long time'." Liara stated lightly as they noted the integrity of the doors around the lab dropping.

"Most of this data's wrecked but we know that we were right, Halo is a Scorched Earth weapon and I'm guessing since the Flood is parasitic like the original, well, later, Zerg, then… it must be to eradicate the food supply… That's ominous, but I think we can deal with it easily enough, just blow this damned ring up… but we can't do that before we get rid of at least some of the Covenant Fleet in the area and find a way to clear this damned Quantum Hurricane before they catch up…" John was thinking aloud. "Oh well, let's just go with the flow, carpet-bomb this area later and GTFO right now…"

"We have a problem." Jedore announced calmly as all the doors blew open and hundreds of Infection Forms swarmed in as well as a few Combat Forms from the other end of the room. "KA-"

BOOM!

The sudden mist of vaporized and thoroughly cooked and sterilized Flood biomass that was now dissipating made Jedore's helmet lights blink once "Well, that finished what I was going to say… let's move it."

"Damned straight." Liara commented, watching the damaged parts of her avatar seal up again, she wasn't recognized by their weapons (as she had no actual armour) and so took more friendly fire damage than the crew did. _Should probably put up a Barrier next time that happens…_ she thought.

They went back to the elevator they came down in, shooting Flood almost every metre of the way. After hitting the UP button and waiting for a bit, it came crashing down and hurled further down the shaft to the bottom of the facility, however far down that would be. The squad looked toward one another. "Well, let's QP Pack our way up and hold the exit of the facility until we can get evac." He thought of something as the group flew up the long elevator shaft, and opened a channel to EDI and Hannah "Mom, we'll need an atmospheric pickup from one of the Geminis. Flood presence confirmed, we don't know how long it's been since the Covenant unleashed them or how far they've gone, I recommend destroying this whole section of the ring with a Yolona Oss shot."

"Can't do that until we clear some of the ships around here out of the way. I'm putting up one Mavor after another as we speak. Do you need any deep strikes?"

"Yes, the facility we're next to is pretty deep, a Mavor shell or three would be appreciated."

"Very well, calculating trajectory… that Mavor should do it. When do you want it?"

John was really wishing they had Tali's flamethrower to burn everything, Temporal Fizz Launchers might have good splash but it didn't leave nearly the same residue Purifying Flame did. "Right the hell now."

"En route, get the hell out of the area, QP Pack it son!" Hannah yelled the last part, and so the group did boost as fast as they could directly away from the facility, getting over a kilometre away before the first shell, several thousand tons in mass, smashed down on it behind them, having snuck past the Covenant patrols via its won stealth capabilities. The shell detonated at the surface, gouging the entrance hall with its power and flattening the aboveground part of the building, plus vaporizing a large portion of the surrounding swamp and Flood infestation. The second shell smashed down through the ruins, relying on its immensely heavy armour and set off its antimatter payload there, scouring the inside of the facility with its energies and eradicating the Flood presence there.

The third shell, sixteen seconds after the first, eight after the second, went further than that, manoeuvring itself to go straight down one elevator shaft… an elevator shaft that was too small for it, resulting in a sudden widening of said elevator. That was before the round went off at the bottom of the tunnel, destroying the entire facility's Flood contamination with its one hundred fifty-plus kilotons of energy and, unfortunately, punching a hole through the outer hull of the ring. "That was not good…" John commented slowly as they watched from a distance. Fortunately, Halo's environmental systems seemed good enough to compensate for it, there was no massive venting of atmosphere through the field breach, for one. There was a gigantic crater and a rather large hole there now, but that was to be expected, after all, not everyone could simply roll over and handle the terrain of such a crater like your average Coalition land unit could. "Hey, there's some sort of tower down there in the swamp… and I'm picking up Sentinels near it, plus some sort of unidentified contact. I wonder… let's get down there and see if they're friendly, if they're not, we outgun and out-armour them anyways, and backup is soon to arrive." John growled, dropping down toward the clearing and the tower which had apparently been used for cover from the blast shockwaves by the fragile Sentinels.

* * *

><p><em>Tower near Flood Containment Facility, Halo, January 17, 3872<em>

If he had jaws, 343 Guilty Spark would be gaping like an idiot over how much destruction had just been delivered by three shells to Halo's structure, he knew they weren't built to be that tough, but he had no clue they were THAT fragile… or that the Forerunner Navy's weapons were so inadequate at times. The cutting beams might not be good as plain old slugs after all. Anyhow, that avatar's psionic signature was far too similar to one he'd known, but that was impossible, wasn't it? She'd died in the firing of the Halos hadn't she? Anyways, the gait the leader was using… that too was familiar… and so was the voice when it demanded "Who the hell are you?"

"Greetings, I am the Monitor of Installation 04, I am three forty three Guilty Spark." He said dumbly, analyzing the tone of the Reclaimer before him, a tone stunningly familiar to him, the same as the Forerunner who had ordered the firing of the Halos. They were here again… TOGETHER? This was unbelievable, then again, with that prophecy or whatever it was _she_ had made before, it wasn't too unbelievable. He wouldn't be surprised if the two top-ranking Admirals were here too.

The Reclaimer's helmet lights frowned at him "Guilty Spark, I know that name from somewhere, anyhow, what do you do around here?"

Guilty Spark's eye blinked owlishly at the man before he could gather his scattered thoughts enough to answer, for an AI, that blink was an eternity. "Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation, but I require your assistance… come, this way." This man's voice was far too similar, and with that woman's avatar's psychic signature… could it be? No, that was far too unlikely… better not to think about that now, focus on containing the outbreak first.

"You're trying to teleport us." The male Reclaimer said flatly, glaring at him with blood-red eye lights, lips drawn down in annoyance, making the old Monitor feel like a bug about to be squashed… "Quantum Teleportation, an old technology, one we can resist. We're not going with you until you tell us what the hell is wrong with this place, crew, silence the Sentinels."

The Psi-signature of the avatar next to him flared up for a moment, almost as high as Guilty Spark had seen _her_ pull off a hundred thousand years ago, before the Sentinels behind him and around them imploded simultaneously, making the Monitor almost shake in his shell in fear. "Please control your temper." He said shakily.

The avatar grabbed him up and held him in place "Listen here light bulb." She glared at him intensely "You try teleporting John" That was the right name… this was all too much of a coincidence, better ignore it for now… "Anywhere without explaining to us and you get turned into a piece of scrap metal no larger than my boot, you got me? Now explain!" She rattled him.

If her temper and powers were anything like those of the woman she resembled so eerily in psychic signature and appearance, Guilty Spark knew he had better respond, especially as the three actual soldiers were wearing class Fourteen and Fifteen Combat Skins. "We must collect the Index before we can activate the Installation, I intended to take us to the teleportation point near the index chamber so we can proceed there."

Liara's avatar raised her eyebrow questioningly "Hmm, you know, that almost makes a little sense. Well, John, shall we?"

* * *

><p>John Shepard glanced at the thing that resembled a blue version of an Oculus drone a little too much for his liking before turning to his girlfriend's avatar again "Hold on, gotta call Mom first… mom, are you getting this?"<p>

Hannah nodded on the private channel "Yes, I've been listening in. You have authorization to go with this Guilty Spark… and ensure Halo never activates, no matter what, we can't risk another Quantum Rift when we're already fighting a major war. Destroy that Index ASAP. I'll be carpet-bombing the area you're in shortly to get rid of any Flood on the surface."

"Understood, guys, we can go with Guilty Spark, deactivate the anti-transport shielding." The Monitor and all three of the actually teleport-able targets were grabbed in the field and teleported while Liara simply locked her coordinates relative to Shepard and allowed the teleportation of his psychic presence to teleport her avatar as well.

* * *

><p>AN: By Combat Skin Classes here's my system: ODST is 1, MJOLNIR Mark IV is 2, Mark VI is 2.5, and so on, considering you can kill the Master Chief shields and all with a single rocket launcher shot, which to John would be something like an Assault Mode LBR bolt, that means a Class 3 is required to take one rocket shot and barely survive. Coalition Infantry guns, though on par with tank guns of past eras, require such an absurdly long time to kill other infantry that Infantry Heavy Weapons were created for the purpose of actually pulling it off within reasonable times. Most of the time, INL fire is what has to be used for reasonable times, the others are for mowing down _heavy_ infantry of other factions.

Ergo, a Class 7 or more is required to take an Infantry Nanodart's 400 kg TNT equivalent directed yield. To take a tank shell from a Coalition light tank (roughly 15 tons TNT yield in energy) as the current armour generation can pull off requires a Class 12 or up, and with the Quantum Storage Space (Forerunner tech does not have Quantum Tech for reasons that will be explained later), reclamation, QP Pack, and add-ons that easily bumps it to 14 or 15.

I AM DISAPPOINTED AT THE SHORTAGE OF REVIEWS FOR THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS! WHERE IS EVERYONE?


	16. I Know These Walls, I've Walked This Flo

A/N: I'm sorry, but fighting the Flood is NOT challenging if you're chucking overpowered grenades frequently and have someone who can reduce a floor full of Flood to soup with a single thought on your side.

Sorry if I sounded too review-demanding, but I got like 3 reviews that were more than a few words for Chapters 13 and 14 and I couldn't believe Da-Reading-Guy was the only one disturbed by Hannah's wicked way of goading the Covenant into doing what she wanted. I don't need people to review every chapter, indeed, overly short reviews on every chapter can get annoying, but I would think using Covenant brains for paint (better than what the Covenant did to human civilians in a couple of the Independent Colonies they razed) would get a bigger reaction.

I am NOT FORERUNNER-BASHING! ONCE I REVEAL THEIR HISTORY, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY THEIR MILITARY TECHNOLOGY WAS WEAKER THAN YOU'D EXPECT, THEY STILL KICK ASS BUT THEY CAN'T MUSTER THE _ARMY_ THE COALITION CAN PULL OFF. Their space fleet, on the other hand… we'll see what the Coalition "barely scratched the paintjob" with, guarantee it'll be better than MAC guns.

I REPEAT: THE FORERUNNERS WERE HINDRED BY THEIR ORIGIN STORY (WHICH I HAVE ALREADY THOUGHT OUT), ONCE IT GOES UP, IT WILL MAKE SENSE!

* * *

><p>Chapter 16: I Know These Walls, I've Walked This Floor<p>

_Library, Halo, January 17, 3872_

"I know these walls." Liara stated bluntly as they looked around "I remember something… something ominous… I remember designing this place… I've walked this floor, talking about the design. The Forerunners had matter shaping technology, but not quite nanolathing."

Nanolathing involved changing matter. Matter shaping just meant, well, shaping it. They'd built the Halos by towing asteroids to the Ark and shaping the metal and minerals in them to build the ring structure. Of course, gravity manipulation was critical to make sure it didn't fall apart. For example, if you gave a Forerunner Matter Shaper a ton of scrap steel, you'd be able to get out (if you wanted) something like 900 kilograms of iron, a brick of graphite and some pellets of various sizes for chromium, molybdenum, etc. You could also do the reverse, and with the recycling fields (read: relatively primitive reclamation field) around Halo, it meant effectively limitless supplies of Sentinels thanks to material recycling. The only problem was that without structural fields in their arsenal, Forerunner constructs had to rely on armour plating or shields.

Sentinels did NOT have very thick armour plating or extremely strong shields.

343 Guilty Spark was not surprised by what the avatar was saying. If he was guessing right and her own prophecy had come true, she was indeed the reincarnation of the same woman who had created this place, designed it, and even imbued herself into it in a way. Still, they could not be distracted now. "The energy field above us contains the Index, we must get up there, Reclaimers, construct, avatar…" It was curious that the Reclaimers had created robotic constructs like the one he had briefly detected inside the grey-blue armour with the speckled surface, different form the matte black and glowing red or smooth white and swirling green (well, more like swirling shades of green in the green parts of the plates) patterns of the others.

The Squad was about to engage Quantum Propulsion Packs when they noticed the solid pane of whatever it was in the way. 343 Guilty Spark had by now wandered over to a huge locked door "The security doors have sealed automatically, I will go access the override to open them." He left, leaving the squad to shoot a few of the Flood Infection Forms that had reached the room in almost a casual way. When he came back, he started with "Please, follow closely, this portal is the first of ten."

The first hallway was simple, John laid down a hail of fire with his Gauss LMG, not dual-wielding for increased firing stability. Coalition laser weapons also had recoil after all, though that was because of the sheer amount of directed energy that had to be unleashed. The rest of the squad were also laying down fire and popping dozens of Infection Forms with each shot, Liara slapping everything into the ground as a puddle of goo with but a thought when they got annoyed with it.

Guilty Spark commented on this "Interesting, you brought highly effective weapons to combat the Flood, I had not expected the Reclaimers to achieve such powerful technologies so quickly." Forerunner body armours only went up to Class Sixteen, and these guys were damned close to hitting that.

They ignored him as they entered the next hallway, immediately hurtling grenades downrange at the mass of Combat Forms that awaited them, the resulting tide of explosions swept the decks more or less clear except a few Infection forms that were killed on contact with their over-shield bubbles. John wasn't worried about infestation, since the Flood were in fact LESS virulent than the Zerg, as the reapers hadn't wanted the Flood to grow too impossible to control, and Coalition technology could deal with Zerg infestations, ergo Flood were not a problem, he just wanted to test his shields.

"The Flood must not escape the installation. They would consume all." Guilty Spark mumbled as they headed for the next hallway, where a number of bulbous things on legs awaited them…

Urz sent them a message as he identified the threats, it read "Carrier Forms, detonates in proximity to viable hosts or under fire, releases Infection Forms, you should kill them on sight."

Guilty Spark was still blabbing as the crew sent round flying downrange to blow pieces off the Flood targets "You can see how the body's been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others, insidious and elegant, as long as any host remains, the Flood is virulent."

"That is a shitty system." John commented as a wall grate blew open right before he threw an Electron Grenade that stuck to the ceiling of said grate. "Not nearly as effective as the Zerg today. As long as any remain, they can survive and thrive."

"The Zerg? They are still around? Damn them… I thought they were all wiped out in the firing of the Halos!" Guilty Spark growled "Anyhow, these parasites must be wiped out before they can consume the galaxy again. It becomes even more imperative that we fire the Halos quickly."

Another hallway of shooting Combat Forms that came at them from around corners, slashing them to hunks with plasma bayonets, blasting them to charcoal (and blowing craters in walls and floors) with Grenades, and jellifying them with the power of Liara's mind later, Guilty Spark was STILL rambling "This installation's research facilities are most impressive! Perhaps we'll have time to see them later."

"The only impressive Forerunner things I've seen so far are their world-building capabilities, or rather the fact that they actually went and did it." John muttered as he shot another Carrier Form a few times with High Explosive shells that scrambled its insides and destroyed the Infection Forms it had been incubating even before it could pop. The Combat Forms, with Covenant weapons, were still as stunningly ineffective as the Covenant had been…

Guilty Spark would have responded, hell, he would have sent them some Sentinels to help out, if he didn't know they were just going to get in the way. Hell, typical Forerunner infantry armour was on par with these guys, though the weapons were slightly more powerful than their rifles were. "I would send Sentinels to supplement your combat systems, but as your current models are at least Class Fourteen and probably closer to Class Fifteen Combat Skins that will not be necessary, the Sentinels are needed elsewhere." The problem with heavy infantry, Guilty Spark had learnt, was that they took annoying long times with typical infantry guns, such as the particle beams of the Sentinels, to kill.

They were approaching the first lift when Guilty Spark drifted off "pardon me, a plasma conduit breach in Section 5-5-2-4 disrupted power flow to a gravity maintenance assembly, repairs require my attention, I will return soon."

"Yeah, and in the meantime we'll just fly up this elevator shaft!" John Shepard yelled after the retreating orb before he started boosting, having cleared the Flood in the area already. "God this is boring, note to self, if we ever create a video game based on this make it less tedious, or at least goddamned SHORTER hallways. The same hallways over and over, who… right, your past self designed this, sorry Liara."

"I'm pretty annoyed at her too John." Liara's avatar replied simply "Let's get on with this. Also, I agree that if we ever make a video game based on our adventures, we would need to severely shorten these halls and of course make the player character weaker, can't have them rolling everything over like this, now can we?"

By the time Guilty Spark caught up with them again, they were two annoyingly long hallways down the second floor "Flood activity had caused a failure in a drone control subsystem, I had to reset the backup unit. Your Combat Skins will serve you well when the Flood begin to alter the atmosphere. You're good planners, just as the ones I knew who resembled you were good planners…" He trailed off almost morosely.

"Well, atmosphere alteration huh? Just like the Zerg aren't they?"

Urz, who was apparently taking a break, probably because Squad Three was being shuttled right now, typed back "Well they are derived from us, a weakened string of us, they should have Virophage-type capability, though it should be much weaker and far slower-acting at best."

The third hallway meant more Combat, Infection and Carrier forms, and of course more firepower poured downrange in irritation. John brought out his Temporal Fizz Launcher to deal with the Infection Forms. Guilty Spark appeared surprised "portable time-warping technology? How unexpected, even my creators did not have that…"

"I don't know how they built worlds when they seem so far behind us in technology, but they did it, you should be proud of your creators." Jedore spoke to the Monitor for the first time.

Guilty Spark bobbed in a nod "I am, this installation was well conceived, it is surely the only way to end the Flood threat."

"No, not the only way, Guilty Spark, we shall show you how it is done…"

Guilty spark shrugged by bobbing and shaking "I would conjecture that the other species currently on the installation is responsible for releasing the Flood, they seem most persistent in their attempts to access restricted areas."

John snorted as they kept moving, going up another lift. "Yeah, sounds like the Covenant all right, don't know what's good for them, if it was up to me the moment something went awry we'd have mass strategic nuked the entire area to dust and echoes."

The Monitor didn't answer until they reached an open, cavernous hallway. "Why naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, and mass sterilization protocols may again need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak for… study. It seems that decision… may have been an error. Still, the installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood, their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce."

John's irrational irritation at the Flood finally snapped and he jumped up with his QP Pack to seize the Monitor's back casing just before he smashed his fists together, leaving a deep dent just above the Oculus-like drone's eye and warping the back cover with the force of the impact, augmented by his armour. "SHUT UP!"

Guilty Spark was severely shaken by just how deep the punches had sunken "Understood, Reclaimer. I will deactivate the security lock ahead…"

"No you won't, you'll stay with us while we toast that door and all those Flood coming from the vents." John growled before passing him to Legion, who held the Monitor firmly and used his armour's weight-increasing capability to stay on the ground while firing with his other hand into the oncoming Flood. The Cybran Marine then yanked the Infantry Nanodart Launcher out of his Quantum Storage aka Inventory after hitting his quick access key for it. He put it onto his shoulder before firing off the first Nanodart in unguided mode, utterly erasing most of the onrushing wall of hostiles in a couple blasts before continuing firing indiscriminately into the shafts the Flood were coming from. After no more contacts were shown there, he aimed for the center of the door and started firing Nanodart after Nanodart at it. It took twenty successive hits to blast through the door even with Electron disruption occurring to the molecular structure of said door. When John was nearly done, Liara ran out of patience. "John, stand aside, I'll do this."

She let loose a field that tore the hole wide enough to walk through comfortable before stopping and jumping up and through the hole.

The next hallway had more Flood, this time in the form of a layer of paste on the floor as Liara had let loose on them while the rest of the crew was boosting up and through the hole in the door. Guilty Spark vibrated before saying "Well, that's one way to do it. It is interesting that you have quantum storage technologies, even the Forerunners only had limited applications of the concept… though their history may have restricted them." Guilty Spark groused as they moved on, grinding their way through the Flood by concentrated firepower and overlapping over-shield bubbles forming the old shield-wall tactic that was STILL effective for steamroller tactics.

"How much further?" John asked.

"We detect one more hallway before we reach our objective." Legion responded.

"Well then, let's hustle." John commented as another volley from his Gauss LMG blasted another Flood Combat Form to pieces. He wondered how the Flood could have overrun the Forerunners, then remembered the lessons of the Zerg and Protoss. Sheer numbers of slightly durable minions could overwhelm even armoured divisions after all. The Coalition would be better off, with structural fields and other such technologies, especially nanolathing, affording both power and numbers.

Apparently, the Forerunners were a bit too much like the Protoss, who were their contemporaries during the Protoss Aeon of Strife. Hell, it had been Adun who had used the two crystals, the Uraj and Khalis, to disrupt the fighting on the shield worlds the Protoss had been forced to move to for a while when the Halos were firing. That brought about the Khalai era of Protoss history after the Halos were fired and the Protoss could once again resume living as normally as tall humanoid photosynthetic organisms could. Before, they had, according to new data gleaned from the Koprulu Sector after the Battle of the Dyson Sphere (the Protoss called that sort of thing a Shield World), fought alongside the infest-able Forerunners against the Flood, third-born of the Xel'Naga (i.e. Reapers) but it had not been enough. The Protoss evacuated to the Shield Worlds while the Forerunners failed to, and in the end, when the Flood was gone, the Protoss… forgot most of it… They had forgotten what was so significant about the Halo array, how many Halos existed, or why Forerunners weren't still around (Reapers maybe?), only legends remained…

Guilty Spark interrupted John's musings "The Flood have already overrun a warship on the surface and are busy repairing it. Their parasitic nature belies their intelligence." They hacked their way into the index chamber, a Combat Form leaving a slash across John's personal shield before his plasma bayonet came down. There was nothing for it to cut, the Combat Form having been turned into a fine cloud of mist before being burnt away by a pissed-off avatar.

"Touch him in any way shape or form and you DIE!" Liara growled viciously, before letting out a wave of psychic energy that surged away from her, cutting Flood in half at the waist but merely flowing around the Squad.

"I'm really glad I never quite tried to make a move on him." Jedore mumbled as she shot more Infection Forms that were trying to run up with dual SMGs.

"The energy barrier surrounding the Index will deactivate when we reach the ground floor." Guilty Spark said after they cleared the last of the Flood presence with some more grenades. They walked onto a platform that moved away slowly "You may now retrieve the Index."

John walked up to the sheath that shifted around pointlessly for a few seconds before it opened and the Index popped out. He grabbed it out and looked at it for a moment, feeling the overly large activation key to the Installation before Guilty Spark took it away with a zap into his own Quantum Storage.

"Protocol requires that I take possession of the Index for transport. Your organic form renders you vulnerable to infection. The Index must not fall into the hands of the Flood, before we reach the Control Room and activate the installation. The Flood is spreading, we must hurry!" Guilty Spark said before they teleported again to the Control Room of Halo, which had been retaken by the Covenant. It was guerrilla doctrine, let the enemy take unneeded strategic points and bleed him dry at them. "Any organism of sufficient mass and cognitive capability is a potential vector, other than Protoss and Zerg… Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing." John said simply, re-engaging the teleportation locking mechanisms before stepping up to the ball and looking it in the eye "Give me the Index, _Monitor_." He growled low in his throat.

* * *

><p>AN: Yes, I just gave Liara Yuri's mind-killing technique from Red Alert 2/Yuri's Revenge.

Again merging chapters…

* * *

><p><em>Control Room, Halo, January 17, 3872<em>

Guilty Spark would have been sweating with fear but for the fact that he couldn't, ergo he stayed falsely cheery "Ah, it seems you know protocol after all, it does not allow units with my classification to… perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core. That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimer." He handed over the Index from his storage.

"Oh REALLY?" John snarled "I didn't spend all that time having my subroutines wander around your system for nothing, you've been trying to slit our throats all along… haven't you?"

"We do not understand this sudden hostility." Legion droned.

"Of course you wouldn't, you're not organic life!" Liara nudged Legion to keep his mouth shut.

Several holograms popped up and John immediately reclaimed the Index into his Quantum Storage. Guilty Spark appeared shocked "A construct? In the Core? That is absolutely unacceptable!" John's subroutine copies gave Guilty Spark the finger collectively "What impertinence, I shall purge you at once!" John cocked back an armoured fist and, not extending the spikes, let it fly, resulting in another deep dent in the Monitor's shell and the ball flying out over the huge… hole-thingy… they stood over. "How… how… how DARE you? I'll…"

"Do what? I have the Index, you can just float and sputter!"

"Enough!" Jedore shouted, not being privy to the intel John and Liara shared with their minds. "The Flood is spreading, Halo's defences activating won't hurt… if we kept the firing localized, right?"

"You have no idea how this ring works, do you?" John had both his INL and his Temporal Fizz Launcher out and ready now, watching the swarm of Sentinels start to surround them. "Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food, Humans, Covenant, whatever, other than Protoss and Zerg, two other Reaper creations, we're all equally edible, and the only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. Halo's designed to do that, with the galaxy clean of all sentient life, don't believe me? Ask HIM!" John gestured violently at the Monitor hanging behind a screen of Sentinels.

"Is it true?" Legion asked instead.

Guilty Spark paused "More or less, technically this installation's pulse has a maximum effective range of one Galactic radius, but once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood… but you already knew that, I mean, how couldn't you? We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way, as we managed this crisis."

"Left out that detail didn't he?" John asked, having reabsorbed his sub-routines by touching the console already. "I remember last time…"

Guilty Spark was even more puzzled now "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done? Last time, you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice. We must activate the ring."

"We need to move John…" Jedore commented, her Temporal Fizz Launcher also trained on the enemy.

"If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give it to me, or I will be forced to take it from you." Guilty Spark said simply.

John was not stupid, he knew negotiation now was impossible… "Liara, use Psi Storm on them! Weapons Free."

Many of the Sentinels fried within the blink of an eye as psionic energy crackled through the cavernous room. The others opened fire with their cutting beams, which, though highly effective against Flood were at best not very effective against shields and structural fields. The Coalition weapons, on the other hand, were effective against the drones, especially as they only had weak… mass effect shields? Still, it was taking at least a few direct hits from anything short of an INL to kill one, something that was quite disturbing… "It seems the Forerunners weren't immune to mass effect technology after all." John commented as his Temporal Fizz Launcher swatted sentinels from the air one after another (the time distort was a godsend). His over-shield popped at that moment and his personal shield began weathering the cutting beams, which, despite their low output, were still numerous enough to bleed away at his shields.

After they finally managed to hack down all the Sentinels (Psi Storms form Liara and Area Overload pulses from Legion were critical to this endeavour), Guilty Spark's signature was nowhere in sight. John sighed "We can't let the Monitor activate Halo, Mom, we need to destroy the Ring…"

"Now that the Covenant has backed off from the ring slightly, their SMD coverage doesn't come out this far, so I can do that, but I need to get a few YO silos and prepped first, that'll take about half an hour, and then we need to yank you guys out of there." Hannah responded "evac is en route and will arrive in roughly one hour, be prepared for dust-off."

John nodded curtly "Got it mom."

"Okay, John, now, you need to buy some time, the machinery in your canyon makes up the primary firing mechanisms of Halo. I can't get accurate locks without units in the area to detect the specific power sources… the power levels are simply so big it's like Black Sun, I can't get an accurate lock on which buildings are which."

"So we should seek out the mechanisms and destroy them." John concluded.

"Yes, if you can destroy whatever is there, the Monitor will need to repair them before Halo can be used. The Forerunners only have matter shaping tech, not nanolathing, so that should buy us a lot of time. Explore the area and seek out the power signatures, mark them with nav-points and we'll bombard them with Mavor fire later."

The group moved out further into the canyon, trading fire with Covenant in the area, John was referring to the data his subroutines had gained from the Control Room for the approximate signatures of the facilities. Apparently, the first object was somewhere above them… the group looked up and saw a ledge sticking out of the cliff face above them. "Guys, we need to get up there to find the first installation that we need to pinpoint. Finish off the Covenant quickly and let's get up there!"

Legion responded from where he was sniping one Covenant soldier after another "Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander."

Jedore's response was "Will go, John."

Liara said nothing, instead thinking an affirmative as she gunned down the last Covenant soldier. The Squad checked around the canyon before boosting up to the ledge. John, who was the first one over the edge, was taken by surprise with a Fuel Rod Gun round to the face from a stationary gun. It didn't do much beyond taking a bite out of his over-shield, and it got the offending Covenant a good volley of Gauss LMG fire before they were all collectively flattened with a smack-down of psionic energy. Needless to say, Jedore rolled her eyes at the overprotective behaviour of the Ardat-Yakshi's avatar.

They went inside, shooting Covenant as they went, heedless of the damage John's personal shield was beginning to accrue. Time was of the essence after all… "That's a phase pulse generator" EDI reported over the comm. "it allows Halo's signal to propagate in the same manner Black Sun's did… well, it lets the signal sustain itself… still, the central core is the signal amplifier. We need to interrupt the energy stream, try shooting it out. Scan it first, it seems to be a more sophisticated model than the ones used in Black Sun."

John did as he was told, scanning it before looking her video frame in the eyes again "You sure that's safe EDI?" John asked.

EDI's video panel nodded "Yes, use an EMP-capable weapon though…" John yanked the Infantry Nanodart Launcher off his back and shouldered it "That would work, I think."

One Nanodart later, the pulse generator was badly holed and no longer functioning properly, another Nanodart later, it was thoroughly wrecked. "That was simple." John stated, looking at the wreck, before a bunch of Sentinels came into the room around the crew through vents "I shouldn't have said that."

"That was what I was about to say." Jedore groused as they duelled with the inferior Sentinels.

"After you guys deal with that, I'm picking up a second signal somewhere in the adjacent canyon, back the way you guys went when getting to the Control Room." EDI said before she paused "I've marked the location of the wrecked generator so you guys don't have to."

The crew jumped down onto the bridge through the middle of the canyon before moving through a door to the next canyon over. "Great, these tunnels again." Liara grumbled. "They're really tedious…"

"Well that's life…" Jedore yawned as they kept moving, encountering no one until they reached a cavernous room where Covenant and Flood were slugging it out. "Hmm, seems the Flood are only as strong as those they assimilate."

John sat down along with the rest of the crew, watching from under active camo (effective invisibility was why the last run-through was so boring after all) as the sides duelled it out "Just like the Zerg, eh?"

Liara nodded as she rendered her avatar invisible "In ways, yes, if they assimilate the right organisms, they would be truly fearsome." Right now the Covenant and Flood were evenly matched, but for the Flood's numbers. "The Covenant are getting overwhelmed!" She noted, before starting a Psi Storm that completely annihilated the reinforcing Carrier Forms coming up from behind the Flood front and popped every single Infection Form in the area.

The Covenant group surged back against the confused Flood, led by two Hunters, which were immune to infection thanks to being colonies of organisms too small for Flood Infection Forms to attack successfully. The two armoured worm colonies, though so fragile against Coalition Infantry Heavy Weapons, smashed Combat Form after Combat Form with their Fuel Rod Guns and heavy shields. The Elites and Grunts that followed behind dispatched any survivors. The lack of surviving Infection Forms in the area, the Psi Storm having specifically targeted them and Carrier Forms, ensured no further Covenant casualties before they left the area. One of them was muttering something about "evacuating the Ring" as they walked by the invisible Coalition crew. That was good, they wouldn't get in the way and wouldn't have to be killed.

* * *

><p><em>Halo, January 17, 3872<em>

The three pulse generators had been temporarily wrecked as the crew stood around, shooting Flood, and waited for evac, which arrived in the form of a Gemini that picked them up and flew off… the crew watched the holo-display of the area behind them. A hail of Mavor and Scathis shells fell on the canyon behind them from the Autumn's guns (the few others all having been reclaimed now) and "levelled" the area thoroughly… if you ignored the giant craters that made the ground QUITE uneven.

"How long until we're back at the Autumn?" John asked anxiously.

"Don't worry, the Flood aren't getting off this Ring, the _Truth and Reconciliation_ has been put down for good now that I've shot it a couple dozen more times with Strategic Artillery shells." Hannah waved it off "It'll take you about an hour to get back to the Autumn even at maximum atmospheric speeds, sadly. 7200 kilometres along the atmosphere of the ring is nothing to scoff at."

"Why can't we use space combat speeds?" John asked "You've cleared the central areas of the ring, haven't you?"

"This Covenant commander, who Lodam here says is named Thel Vadamee, is smart, he might not be sending any big boats in there anymore but he's still got a few Corvettes on patrol, though they're careful to stay out of the central plane of the Ring. I've lost a couple Spooks to them already. We should play it safe… not that raking the ring with Scathis and Mavor shells is that safe." Hannah chuckled at that.

John snorted "Right."

"You still have the Index right?"

"Yes Mom."

"Put it in a reclamation device on the Gemini and destroy it, Halo must not fire." Hannah said, shaking her head grimly "This ring… Black Sun firing didn't match up. Well, maybe it could have if it had been used for the original purpose of shattering the Aeon and Cybran Core Worlds, but we used it for the Quantum Virus instead."

"Sure… would firing it in a Nanite missile and then setting the missile off work?"

Hannah nodded "Aim it at the ground, I'll land a Mavor shell to be sure."

John nodded back "Alright, going now."

* * *

><p>AN: Yeah, I know, I'm making Halo too relaxed, but if you kind of remember some things about building the ring, and you've seen weapons that theoretically could have even greater yields, it's not that shocking. Black Sun firing (the UEF plan) could have had more power—there would be a LOT of Aeon and Cybran core worlds it would need to SHATTER in one firing… ergo more power (though still the same order of magnitude)—than a _single_ Halo firing after all. However, the Cybrans fired it the only time it was fired, ergo it wasn't at maximum power.

Does anyone else think the Oculus Drone from ME 2 looked WAY too much like a red Guilty Spark?

I've written up to Ch 18 already, if you want faster posting, REVIEW!


	17. STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED

A/N: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The cover of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots has a photo of Snake, Go see the Halo Wars first cinematic, Captain Cutter looks a LOT like Snake does, at least the cover version of Snake.

Sorry for chopping things up into so many short chapters, but I'm trying for one major event in each chapter. Also, Spacebar's review was right, the Forerunners couldn't get their firing rates up, and the Flood are an enemy that, like the Zerg, DEMAND crowd-control abilities. Fortunately for this cycle, the Council, Coalition and Covenant cover the whole spectrum. Citadel weapons are extremely rapid fire and are basically god at mowing down Infection Forms and Carrier Forms. Coalition weapons vary but typically have crowd control/linear splash enough to deal with anything. Covenant guns fire slower but do decent damage per hit. Of course, the Coalition is by far the best. The Forerunners only outmatch them in navy, and even there, if it came down to a war of attrition the Coalition could have overrun them. This is especially true as Forerunner Sentinel and Enforcer designs didn't change for the whole war, and that was at least 300 years as the Keyship tactics lasted that long. Ergo I'm BEEFING my Forerunners by giving their military so much credit, NOT BASHING THEM!

* * *

><p>Chapter 17: STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED<p>

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo, January 17, 3872_

"Why are we not lifting off yet?" John asked as the crew watched Hannah plot the four YO missile targets along the ring and their firing order before plotting three more Strategic Missile shots from the Liberator T3 Strategic Missile Launcher she had in the base. One of them was directly on top of the remaining base structures, as everything else had already been reclaimed and the mass used to rebuild the Pillar's air fleets (the Paragon's mass generation was turned off to be extra economical about the job). "Right, that makes sense…" He was ignored for now.

"I'm picking up a transmission to us." Thel Lodam warned from his station.

"Patch it through." Hannah Shepard stated calmly.

"I'm afraid leaving's out of the question, really." A voice came over the comm. "You see, I can't let you leave, and with the non-classified data that you've let me access as soon as you marked me as an ally, you can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all our lost time and our true origins, human history, is it? Fascinating, oh how I will enjoy every moment of categorizing it. And to think you would destroy this installation and all this wonderful data I have downloaded… I am SHOCKED, almost too shocked for words."

"There are giant grappling claws coming out of the ground!" Garrus warned form his station, Squads Two and Three had come back earlier than Squad One, and taken up stations.

"Why do you continue to fight us, Reclaimer? You cannot win! Give us the Index, and we will endeavour to make your death relatively painless and…"

Hannah had cut the channel and hit the firing button for the Ravagers and Heavy Microwave Lasers all over the ship. The point defence guns immediately fired on the grappling claws, tearing hunks out of them and whittling through them. Then the HMLs swung about far enough to begin hewing through the spires, those were a LOT faster than the Ravagers could pull. "Fuck you 343 Guilty Spark, for this, you and everyone else left on this ring… shall DIE!" She brought her fist down on the Big Red Button (TM).

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" The computer droned, a x7 multiplier glaring from the screens next to the warning that appeared along the top of said screens.

"Beam Emitters are reorienting to fire on us, should we open fire?" Joker shouted as the ship suddenly lurched, rising slowly from the support frame that had been built to spread its weight out.

"Anything that tries to shoot at us goes down!" Hannah shouted, her grip on her armrests tightening. The Covenant were backing up as they noticed their Ring coming active in front of their eyes, weapons extending and ready to fire on the intruder. "KILL THEM!" She hit the controls for weapons free.

A series of lights blossomed all across the ring structure of Halo, the brilliant lights growing and growing before fading as the ring's fragments began to fly apart, most fragments rippling outward with the sheer amount of energy directed at them, but some buckling inward with the snapping of their sections and crashing together. Environment systems failed all over the ring and Covenant and Food alike were thoroughly killed by the vacuum of space. "Am I the only one glad the Flood's normal forms, not the Flood Creep Layers that make up Flood ship plating, can't survive in space the way Zerg can?" Urz asked.

"No, we're glad for it too." John said simply to the armoured Devouring One standing on four legs next to him. Urz could be bipedal when he was doing task that required his hands (i.e. eating or Poker) but he preferred walking around on all fours.

"Did anyone else get off the ring alive?" Hannah asked EDI.

"Scanning… no, just dust and echoes, we're all that's left. The Covenant fleet has left the area, and we are fully undetectable to them. If we launch a surprise attack now, we can destroy some more before we run away." EDI reported. "We tied them up for two days, but with the Flood… we did what we had to, Halo… it's finished."

Hannah Shepard shook her head "No, I think we're just getting started, ground crew stand down for now, get some rest, you too Liara, you'll need it for any potential boarding actions we'll be carrying out in a few hours. EDI, their ships are still leaving, if what I'm reading is correct." The ground crew cleared out after their dismissal.

"Yes, Hannah, they're still leaving. A lot of the ships foolishly amassing near Halo were destroyed, but those bearing the insignia of the Fleet of Particular Justice mostly survived."

"That sounds about right for Thel Vadamee's reputation." Thel Lodam commented from his spot on the bridge. "Guy's pretty damned smart and not nearly as arrogant as most other Supreme Commanders. A lot of people don't respect him for that, but he consistently performs better than everyone else, ergo he got to command one of the largest fleets despite many people not liking his way of doing things."

"Great, now… wait, the ships of his fleet just jumped out!" The Covenant ship count in-system decreased to twenty-something "let's wait until there's under ten ships left. Oh, and open a channel to the ground crew."

"Certainly…" EDI got a evil smirk on her face. "I'm guessing the message is…"

"You're probably right, anyways, to the ground crew! No fornication while we're waiting for the Covenant to leave! We can't be caught with our pants down!"

There was a long and awkward silence "Thanks for the reminder…" Garrus of all people replied for the crew. Jacob and Kasumi, James and Tali and John were blushing profusely on their helmet lights.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo ruins, January 17, 3872<em>

"So, my dear half-sister, it's time for us to FINALLY talk." Mirala snapped venomously, catching Liara off-guard. The two were sitting alone in Mirala's bedroom.

"What are you so annoyed about?"

Mirala sighed "Nothing really, except that every time I've tried talking to you properly you're always too busy dragging your boyfriend off to screw any brains he has left out. That's cute the first couple… dozen… times, but after that it was just annoying. Almost makes me think you're avoiding me or something."

"Well right now we're under orders to… do nothing. So I'm completely available to talk…"

Mirala sniggered at that "Heh, 'Do Nothing', yeah, that sounds about right… By the way, when can I expect half-nieces? How many?"

Liara frowned "We haven't really thought about it much yet, but we want quite a few babies."

Mirala almost banged her forehead on the desk that sat between them as she watched her half-sister's avatar's face gain a dreamy sort of look, maybe she should stay away from the topic for now, get other information out of and into the almost silly girl first… Then they can spend their time ooh-ing and ah-ing over romance and essentially act like idiots for a few moments "Let's talk about something else, what does it feel like to be so powerful? How do you even make your Hallucination work? How can you feel through it?"

Liara snapped out of her state "Well I think the feeling part is just raw power, but animating a Hallucination to act as an avatar isn't that difficult, you just think really hard that you are creating multiple copies of whatever you're trying to make Hallucinations of and voila there will be multiple copies. For example, I could create three Hallucinations of you and have them go at one another for kicks, but it would be hard to add anything abnormal that I've never seen before, like male parts, with my mind alone. By the way, how is it that you can use Dominate on pretty much any species even if you haven't sensed them much before?"

"Well I think it's just experience from Dominating so many in the past, it's a matter of extending yourself toward them and sliding between the delicate interface of mind and body to take control. That makes the target do what you want it to like a puppet, though that's direct control. In other cases you can just pulverise the target mind and reprogram it with a new prime directive, or do something between the two extremes, squish it enough to make it malleable and then sculpt it to your heart's content."

Liara thought for a moment "Hmm, sounds about right… about the Ardat-Yakshi bloodlust, how did you deal with it? It's not like you had a perfect, AY-proof man there to take care of your sexual needs, how did you deal with it?"

"Toys, a LOT of toys." Mirala grumbled after a while of glaring "And also when I absolutely had to go hunting I always killed those who deserved to die. You're so lucky you've never had your first kill. The addiction to taking lives only starts setting in AFTER that… though somehow on this mission I haven't felt overly inclined to 'eat' anyone yet, perhaps I'm getting a vibe of hope or something from being in proximity to so many Cybrans?" In reality, it was something Mordin had secretly come up with that Gardner had been putting in her food (John had authorized it), but that's not the point, though it's good to know the old Salarian scientist is still good for something…

"Hmm, maybe. You know your abilities, such as that Hammer of Thor thing?" In certain parts of the galaxy, the ability was known among combatants as Earthquake, though the next ability was the same name either way "Or Explode? Let's talk about how those are employed and I'll tell you about my damage dealing techniques…"

Mirala nodded once "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

><p><em>Several hours of talking later…<em>

"Will you PLEASE tell me who my father was or could have been?"

"…No."

A couple minutes later… "How about now?"

Mirala suddenly realized this was a good time to start asking about how Liara felt with such power "Liara, what is it like to have so much power? Your psychic signature is so much greater than any others I have seen it is not even funny… you Avatar can wield WEAPONS for Goddess's sake!"

"It's… different, and usually a lot of fun." Liara smirked.

Mirala apparently had a much filthier mind "You know how you can make Hallucinations and wire them up to minds? What do you think of having some extra special time with John where you link your minds and reverse sensory inputs? As in you feel like you're in his body and him in yours? I bet since you wouldn't be used to those sensory inputs or him o yours you'll both have a lot of fun."

"Mirala!" Liara snapped indignantly "That's not the point of having my powers, though it would be fun to try connecting him to two avatars of himself and…"

"Total filling, my dear half-sister?" Mirala had a wicked grin on her face "You are Ardat-Yakshi indeed, especially if you have a huge sexual appetite."

"I do…" Liara said slowly, frowning.

Mirala chuckled before continuing "So tell me, what does Union feels like? I've had sex plenty of times but Union is something that I never had, not even once…"

"It is as you should know an indescribable experience. You are yourself and your mate at the same time, immersed in but not drowning in one another's presence. You can access your mate's mind freely, though they may choose to mark something as something to keep to themselves. I've always respected John's private information, and he's respected mine. The pleasure your bodies perceive is also shared, though to a lesser extent, still, it is a stupefying experience, the more emotionally bonded you are, the better it gets. The only downside is the aftermath. If you wait too long or move away from your mate shortly thereafter you'll find yourself missing their presence almost unbearably." It had once resulted in her pulling John with her to use the toilet after their session that night just because she wanted to keep flesh contact. John had said something along those lines once, though he'd never dragged her along like she had him.

"Sounds fun…" The conversation went on from there…

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo ruins, January 18, 3872<em>

It was late in the next afternoon when Hannah was awakened from her nap in her command chair by EDI, who could simply continue to function in the ship's systems when her body needed to rest (though she was not required for normal running, it was fun to think). "It's time, there's only seven Covenant ships left in-system, searching the area, most likely for the Flood activity our Strategic Bombers thoroughly sterilized the area of hours ago."

She smirked "Great, it's time to give the Covenant a good ass-kicking."

EDI chewed on her plump bottom lip for a moment "Uh, there's one problem…"

Hannah looked around at the blonde half-synthetic woman for a moment "What is it?"

"The seven ships include a Super Carrier."

The Division Commander paused for a moment "Oh, well that changes things… call the ground teams and put them in three of the evac Geminis." They were far better shielded, fielded and armoured than the somewhat speedier Spy Planes she could have used for an infiltration. Besides, with Supercharger upgrades on their engines, they were good enough. "Tell them to get ready to board that Super Carrier the moment we get them to drop their shields and deploy Seraphs. Tell them to close distance to just outside Covenant Omni-type sensor range."

"Message relayed." EDI stated before turning her head slightly to look at her Division Commander sceptically. "How are we going to do that? The Covenant have smartened up haven't they? They know not to let out their small-craft when they see our fighters or capital ships on approach, as they know they're vulnerable with their shields down…"

EDI trailed off on sight of Hannah's wolfish grin "Exactly." The Division Commander smirked coldly as she checked on the ground crew's readiness and set the ball rolling. She watched the thinly spread Covenant group and grinned. This would be a nice challenge…

A few minutes later, a Dragon Fly Stealth transport flew back and took its place on one of the external clamps, having escorted a few Shockers into positions behind chunks of Halo off the path of the _Ascendant Justice_. That meant they were near the _Pillar of Autumn_ as well… The "evac Geminis" shot out of the launch bays and formed up behind the loose strategic bomber groups, which had a horde of Asylum-class shield generators and Whailer T3 Heavy Gunships protecting them. The former were by shields, the latter by false targeting signatures.

As the Super Carrier came into range, she ordered the Asylums, Whailers and Shockers forward at the target's flank. They made their first pass with only a volley of plasma torpedoes killing the Asylums and a few of the Whailers, no casualties among the Shockers, and began dropping more bombs as they flew around the 27-km-long vessel. Sadly for the Covenant, the Shockers had speeds that rendered pulse laser turrets rather ineffective due to traverse rate at close distances, and the Plasma Chaingun turrets weren't dealing damage fast enough, as they were rather widely spaced…

A Seraph bay along one side of the ship opened and disgorged a complement of the fighters that streamed out of the dropped shield panel toward space. It was a reasonable tactic, as this flight group had at best weak AA capability. That was right before the last few Seraphs were smeared across the effectively invisible hulls of three Aerospace Superiority Fighters. Sleek and deadly black hulls materialized just in time to knife into the hangar bay, unleashing missiles that set off chains of explosions and vented the bay to space before spilling out squads of lethal warriors into the ship…

* * *

><p><em>Thel Vadamee's Flagship, January 18, 3872<em>

"How goes the clean-up?" Thel asked, Orna, still a bit annoyed at the loss of his ship and much of his crew, standing in a subdued stance near the command station as if he was an extra guard, occasionally helping the officers watch displays and deal with stuff.

"Not much left out here… apparently there's still a few Coalition bombers out here though… short-range scanners are reading them as one of the varieties without AA guns, so they're not stealthed either. We're sending out Seraphs right now to…"

Thel suddenly had a very bad feeling, the _Pillar of Autumn_ hadn't been confirmed destroyed, and if it had survived that demon of a tactician that commanded it… "DON'T DROP THE SHIELDS!" Thel roared, hammering the armrests and making the Fleet Master on the other end jump a little before opening his mouth "Don't question me just get the damned shields back up!"

"Understood, Supreme Commander, you guys heard…" There was a sudden howling of alarms through the Super Carrier's bridge of landing bay breaches and boarders. "All squads get ready to repel boarders!" The Fleet Master yelled.

Thel Vadamee sighed "A better solution would be to jettison that part of the ship, Fleet Master, we all know how deadly Coalition Marines can be."

"The problem is that it was one of the bays on the main bow section, Supreme Commander." The Fleet Master reported.

Thel gaped, the male had allowed one of THOSE bays to be the one to deploy fighters? "Evacuate into the other sections and jettison everything! Have the cruisers destroy the bow… Fleet Master? Fleet Master can you hear me?" He actually sounded half-panicked now.

"Channel's dead sir, jammed." Orna, who'd taken to watching the communications board, reported.

Thel Vadamee punched his console in frustration "Forerunners damn it… what are we waiting for? Everyone, turn back toward Halo's wreckage, NOW!" No one dared question it as the detachment of the Fleet of Particular Justice turned around in slipspace and headed back to the debris cloud of Halo, which was four hours away at their current speed. Thel knew it would be too little, too late, but if the Fleet Master was not a typical proud idiot, he might be able to salvage most of the sections of the Super Carrier, and Thel could at least give them a pick-up. If it came down to it, his current battle group had enough Assault Carriers and Battleships to take one rouge Super Carrier out.

* * *

><p><em>Ascendant Justice, Halo ruins, January 18, 3872<em>

"What ARE these things?" Liara asked as another one of the oddly Overlord-like floating gas bag thingies moved out of the way, curling up in what seemed to be fright. "They don't seem to be a combat species of the Covenant, so why are they here?"

"They're Huragok, engineers of the Covenant, if my analysis is correct of the Covenant and Halo archives, they're machines built by the Forerunners that can self-reproduce, used to, quite simply put, fix things. You'd think that with matter shaping tech enough to build Halo and that Dyson Sphere the Forerunners would have engineering protocols but NOOOOO…" EDI reported as the seventeen soldier (Thel Lodam and Liara included, not counting Urz) shore party battled their way through hordes of Covenant through shooting, blasting, roasting, slashing, bludgeoning, mind powers, tech abilities, and all combinations of the aforementioned skills. "They tend to not take fights, only enjoy repairing things. Try not to kill too many of them, we need them to maintain the Ascendant Justice until we can get enough scans up for our engineering suites to deal with it… never mind, it's just too big for the suites to handle without being built-in, let the Huragok live."

"Understood EDI." John replied as he abruptly acquired a new arm ornament in the form of a Jackal that had just bit him. He was too busy punching a suicidal Grunt with two plasma grenades out of the way to even chuck the avian off until it imploded under a familiar friend's mental powers. "Thanks Liara."

"Anytime John." Her voice was still soothing even in the middle of a nightmarish urban combat scenario of hallways inside the ship. Fortunately, EDI had managed to lock all the Covenant doors, and prevent sections from jettisoning, but she was fighting a Covenant AI right now and so was kind of busy. The psychic-capable team members were wreaking absolute havoc while they Warped, Charged, Shockwave-d, and Threw their way through the Covenant lines. The soldiers and techies followed closely and provided a stream of support fire against the enemy positions, as well as hacking through locked doors on their way to the bridge through three separate avenues of attack.

Along the way, they managed to avoid several confrontations… in the form of Grunts screaming "RUN AWAY!" and doing just that. Then again, there were other confrontations with cornered Grunts that didn't go so well, generally they'd take out two plasma grenades, grab a Jackal's shield if available, and make a charge of it. The grenades took bites out of the crew's shields, but it was no matter… the recharge rate was good enough to handle taking occasional bites, even though they usually managed to shoot the Grunts before they could get into blast range.

It took them over an hour of EDI pretending to be the Covenant AI and responding to other ships, the _Autumn's_ deployed comm. jammers blocking transmissions, and battling their way through the ship before they could reach the bridge. The psychics had been tapping their supplements, other than Liara, who didn't need them, by the time they arrived and broke through into the bridge via three doorways at once. Of course, they had to immediately duck back behind the doorways as Fuel Rod fire poured through from the hastily deployed guns, but throwing a handful of grenades in shook the deck with their detonations and provided adequate suppression for the shore crew to charge in and start a firefight on the bridge. It was a firefight that the crew won via application of heavy weapons such as Gauss Chainguns, ULPAs, Temporal Fizz Launchers and INLs.

The other Covenant might have been fooled by EDI's transmissions and the jamming, but they picked up the sudden venting of the atmosphere throughout the entirety of the _Ascendant Justice_. Hannah Shepard caught the tail end of an intercepted transmission. Apparently one of the cruisers had moved out of her jamming range "…I repeat, anyone that can hear me, this is Supreme Commander Thel Vadamee of the Fleet of Particular Justice, any sections that do not eject from the Ascendant Justice have been compromised and must be destroyed to prevent it from falling into Coalition hands."

All six cruisers turned and began closing in on the still-helpless Ascendant Justice, where EDI and the Covenant AI were still fighting a major battle of electronics. The fact that most of the control consoles were rather battered (read: melting piles of flaming scrap) meant manual control was undoable. The AI estimated it to be ten minutes before she could fully destroy her opponent and take control. That was ten minutes too many to be without absolutely everything that let a starship run—regular crew included, excluding Huragok.

* * *

><p>While the other cruisers were closing in on their ship, John was being irritated by an annoyingly focused Huragok that followed him around trying to scan his armour, which was resisting its sensors. The fact that Mordin the Scientist Salarian was following the Huragok in question taking notes wasn't helping matters. Finally the Huragok tried to reach out to touch him only to be repulsed by his personal shield (recently, shields had been adapted to repel non-friendly contact as well as fields did). It recoiled at the zap of the shield and then reached for him again just before he waved a spiked fist in front of its face. Needless to say, it flew off with a squeak of fear. "You know, if this ship wasn't too big for just planting Engineering Stations on I would just shoot these things, who knows what intel they're getting for the Covenant?"<p>

"We can kill them later, it looks like they only want to fix stuff." Tali observed the constructs repairing smashed-up Covenant gear, they were as far as she was concerned less trustworthy than the Geth, but then again that wasn't saying much considering she'd trust Legion with her life nowadays…

"Agreed, let them be for now, we should be more worried about those approaching Covenant Cruisers." James said, pointing at his display.

* * *

><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, Halo ruins, January 18, 3872<em>

"Bring us around behind that slab of Halo." Hannah ordered, that slab could serve as a shield, and the Covenant would have to move in front of it to get to the Ascendant Justice, which had hung back in the formation originally "Keep us out of direct sensor contact until they come into weapon coverage, then open up with everything we've got on the second ship and turn the helm over to me so that I can make an adequately dramatic entrance."

Joker chuckled form his post "You Shepard family members are all the same, over-dramatic… I like the idea."

As the second Covenant Cruiser passed the innocuous-looking piece of Halo, eighteen reddish Heavy Microwave Laser beams, dim with the low amount of dust to diffract the energy in space, lashed out at its shields and raked along them. Several grey and yellow blurs smashed into the shields before a hail of white/blue pulses and beams lashed away at it, collapsing the shields at last. That was moments before hundreds of Loa Tactical Missiles smashed into the hull and detonated against the armour plating, riddling it with craters that were soon linked in a lethal game of connect-the-dots by the Heavy Microwave Lasers that burnt away at and through the armour to scour the inside of the ship.

That Cruiser fell out of formation with pieces falling off, before it went up in a fireball as the core overloaded. The Heavy Microwave Lasers had helped REDUCE the blast by vaporizing a significant portion of the main reactors before they could blow. The other ships began to turn toward the threat coming out in its full 1500-meter glory from behind a piece of Halo's wreckage, deactivating every stealth and camouflage system, proudly displaying the emblazoned letters "PILLAR OF AUTUMN" along the side of the prow as it lashed away at the second Cruiser.

The cruisers only gave one volley of Plasma Projector and other weapons fire before attempting to open Slipspace portals. Attempting was the operant term, since Hannah had already laid jammers along her ambush route. Her hundreds of aerospace units milled out from behind nearby wrecks and surged at the Cruisers while her own guns lashed away at them. The massacre was over within ten minutes even thought the smaller Covenant warships did their best to evade the Heavy Destroyer, they were slower, less manoeuvrable, more fragile, and outgunned. They hadn't stood a real chance. Now, it was time to head back to Reach… From what Hannah gleaned from High Command, the system had just fallen silent and people feared the worst. She knew better, for after all, three-quarters of the Elite Four were on the scene, with evenly matched fleets and what was probably the best Covenant commander off the battle. Sure, his subordinates would likely have put up a good fight, but with the Hurricane that had moved into the vicinity of the Reach system no one knew just how the battle had gone.

There was only one way to find out. "EDI, how soon can we and the _Ascendant Justice_ be at Reach?"

"With my understanding of Covenant slipspace drives and the accidental damage we inflicted on the systems of the ship while fighting on the bridge, we will require twelve hours to get to Reach, I will fit the IFF into the ship's transponder en route."

"Excellent, it's about time we turned the Covenant's own big guns back on them. Have John tap his subroutines into the Ascendant Justice and sync jump with us toward Reach. We will exit here in the outer system and immediately broadcast to all Coalition survivors that the cavalry has arrived. Remember, I drew up the Shepard Protocol, Article Seven does not apply here, the Covenant know where Reach is."

* * *

><p><em>Thel Vadamee's Flagship, En Route toward Halo ruins, January 18, 3872<em>

"Hierarchs, we NEED to see if a Super Carrier has fallen into enemy hands or not." Thel tried to reason with the buffoons.

"Right now you going there or not will not make a difference, you may have enough heavy ships to destroy it but that will not make a difference either." Truth was saying coldly. "Turn back NOW, we need you to get over here to High Charity ASAP, do you hear me?"

Thel nodded brusquely "Understood, Hierarchs, I will be there as fast as I can be."

"Good, we look forward to seeing you, he who allowed Halo to be destroyed." The Prophets cut the channel.

Thel fumed at the accusations, but then Orna Fulsamee put a hand on his shoulder "Brother, we all know there was nothing you could really do without massed use of plasma projectors, we're behind you every centimetre of the way. If they try something completely unreasonable… well, the Fleet of Particular Justice is loyal to you, always."

Thel shook his head as he sat again in his command chair "Enough, Orna, I will not have my brethren throw away their lives so."

The helmsman turned his head to ask "What course shall we take, Supreme Commander?"

"Push the engines hard, get us to Halo, and then back to High Charity, but make sure the engines can cool a bit before we reach the station. We can always complain of minor engine damage from getting caught off-guard by Coalition starfighters if we have to. We need to check if the _Ascendant Justice_ has been captured or not. Twenty-seven kilometres of starship count for a whole shitload more than anything the Prophets can throw at me right now. Halo's gone, nothing we can do about that, let's just hope there's enough left of the _Ascendant Justice_ to salvage." Unfortunately, they would find nothing, though Thel Vadamee's excuse flew at High Charity.

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><p>Covenant Super Carrier: <em>Ascendant Justice<em>

Length: 27000 meters

Description: Covenant Super Carriers have proven to be a supreme threat throughout the Coalition-Covenant war. Able to take on small Coalition battle groups alone and emerge victorious, these ships are expected to be able to handily outgun even standard Reapers or Forerunner warships. They are certainly able to overcome any opponent they have met thus far, even a Coalition 3872 Heavy Destroyer (excluding the Pillar of Autumn, which has reinforced shields and extra HMLs) would not last a solid volley against one (that's only counting half the guns firing at once). The only known way to reliably kill one without suffering 20:1 or higher loss ratios (even with Coalition shields and fields), and that's just by attacking its escorting fleet first, is to surprise it with a Yolona Oss missile. Preferably, surprise it with multiple missiles, as a single missile to the prow will not completely destroy its crew, though most of the ship would be done for. The weaknesses of overlapping shields versus one big bubble become evident at this point. Still, a Super Carrier is a mighty foe indeed, no matter what faction you are or what weapons you use.

Armament:

54 Plasma Projectors

324 Plasma Turrets (aka Plasma Torpedo Launchers)

648 Pulse Laser Turrets

648 Plasma Chaingun Turrets

Complement:

Over 27000 Seraph starfighters

Many thousands of assorted Banshee Light Aerial Vehicles, Spirit Dropships, Phantom Dropships (when firepower is more important than transport capacity of troops and vehicles), Orbital Insertion Pods, and Boarding Craft.

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><p>AN: Thought 7 plasma projectors were far too few, ergo Super Carriers are true _monsters_ now.


	18. It Came Back To Me…

A/N: Decided to make the POA a bit of an experimental warship in that it had more than normal HMLs. 18 was just a bit too much IMHO… regular Heavy Destroyers will have fewer guns.

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><p>Chapter 18: It Came Back To Me…<p>

_Orbit over Reach, January 19, 3872_

Two days… two days since the damned Quantum Hurricane moved in. Grand Crusader Ariel Williams wasn't sure if the increasing frequency of the phenomena, or this one's high powered nature, were due to the powerful weapons discharges that had mad up this war, but she was leaning toward yes for an answer. This one was so strong that even long-range communications were down and unlikely to be back up until the eye-wall of the storm, where they were now, had gone by. They hadn't sent anything by subspace or slipspace, since the former was a technology they didn't want to reveal yet and the latter was simply not worth the effort.

Every ship, every damned ship, every station, every ground-side gun, and every fighter, bomber and gunship, had been required to hold the line. Every missile that had been hoarded had been used. Even now, it was still a stalemate. Less than two hundred warships remained on the Covenant side and a hundred or so remained on the Coalition side. Fortunately, the second Covenant commander had been called away as well a day into the battle and the third was not as intelligent, ergo the fleet and the defences held their own against an enemy superior by far in firepower. The fact that they still had three Yolona Oss stations functional didn't help the Covenant trying to skirmish with them.

Seth-Thauum was first to pick up the new contacts at the edge of the system. "It's… a Covenant Super Carrier. This is it guys, say your prayers… wait, it's a friendly! I'm picking up a communiqué!" His voice had gone from exhaustion to relief in an instant.

"To all surviving Coalition forces, sorry we were late to the party, but we brought this baby with us, say hello to the _Ascendant Justice_. This is Division Commander Hannah Shepard from the Heavy Destroyer _Pillar of Autumn_, and yes, indeed, the cavalry has arrived." From the tired and relatively crowded ships of the remaining Coalition fleet came a low hum of sound before it rose to a crescendo of wild cheering. The Super Carrier lumbered toward the quite badly damaged Covenant line, which parted to make room for it… EDI was fooling them well. That was up until Hannah sent a message to the Covenant "Dear Covenant bastards, please meet what is surely one of your old friends: The _Ascendant Justice_. Have fun playing with one another."

With that, the fifty-four plasma projectors of the twenty-seven kilometre long Super Carrier opened up as one, smashing twelve Covenant ships out of space in one volley before chaos set in and the Covenant started returning fire against a ship originally built for the express purpose of crushing fleets single-handedly. It wasn't even a real battle as Covenant ship after Covenant ship fell to Plasma Projector fire, the _Ascendant Justice_ seemingly utterly unfazed as it took shot after shot to its absurdly overpowered shields. The starfighters the Coalition had been hoarding were unleashed along with an exhausted final charge by a fleet of half-"Health" (though fully shielded) warships, supported by the Pillar of Autumn, they tore up the Covenant formation mercilessly.

By the end of the fight, only a few Covenant warships remained, low in the atmosphere and apparently frantically trying to do something… It seemed they were working at the site of an archaeological dig, trying to nab something. Since they could be obliterated at any time, the Elite Four decided investigation was a good idea.

* * *

><p><em>Reach, January 19, 3872<em>

Less than twenty minutes later, the ground team was on, well, the ground, having gotten near the Covenant dig site by way of a Revenant hugging the forest as it flew, barely over the tips of trees. They made it down the Covenant excavation tunnel without further incident. It was a long tunnel, since the Earth Empire had dug down here once upon a time, and had found nothing despite there having been an energy signature down here. The site had been filled in after that, and of course it had taken the Covenant days to bore through the building materials used. The Covenant were, from the transmissions in the area, searching for a "Holy Light", probably the same energy signature that had been detected down here centuries ago and eventually became the stuff of children's stories and conspiracy theories.

They encountered no resistance until they got close to the Energy Signature, which despite the name similarity had nothing to do with Othuy Energy Signatures. The first group of Covenant they found was a group of about a hundred digging away toward the energy signature's location. Apparently there had been a minor cave-in and the tunnel had been temporarily blocked after a battle group of Covenant soldiers entered.

The diggers were shot without incident and quick reclamation and reinforcement work opened the tunnel again. The Covenant contacts ahead were oddly arranged in a sort of circular formation… _Oh, so it's unsurprising… a huge circular room, here, who would have thought…?_ John thought. They were all hidden in the many balconies that ringed the room, almost like a theatre. In the middle, as the seventeen-soldier (and one Devouring One) squad fanned into the room, was a dais-like structure. Atop it, a pink crystal shimmered into view in an almost ethereal manner…

Silence reigned in the chamber even from the awed and reverent Covenant, until Jack, as per expected, stated rather obnoxiously "How dramatic can you guys get?"

Liara didn't seem to even hear her, seemingly ghosting up to the crystal almost as if possessed, her avatar's eyes glowing slightly as she reached for it before hesitating and turning her head slightly. Tali, James and John felt themselves being grabbed by an invisible force and sort of… drifted… up to the crystal. The rest of the crew fanned out, forming a protective ring around them, keeping an eye on them while their guns were trained on the Covenant.

A shadowy spectre of a woman, who looked just like Liara's human form, popped up and yawned widely before looking down at them from above the pink crystal "Ah, this is good to see. Interesting that you, well, we, but that's beside the point, are together again… I had felt this would be a good place to put this. After all, there was a reason I only made one trip off our new homeworld even after we got FTL capability back…" It smirked down at the shocked faces before it. "It's interesting that the future me should look just like I did, interesting indeed… you should show your true form, you know, it's offensive to the Founder, i.e. me, if you don't."

"What do you mean?" Liara asked sceptically.

The ghost waved her hand dismissively at that "Just project yourself as the Asari you are, Liara, do not fear the Covenant. They will not do anything untoward."

Liara could feel the flesh on her avatar shifting around "HEY!" she shouted indignantly as she felt her usual head crest form again. "What gives you the right to do that? And how do you know of the Asari?"

"You have a lot to learn, my child, or should I say future self… I implanted a portion of myself into this crystal just to teach you. Remember, me: Death closes all: but something ere the end, some work of noble note, may yet be done, not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. That's all I will tell you right now regarding my identity, the rest is for you to find out with time."

"We enjoy puzzles, but not while guns are pointed at the head of the galaxy." John and Liara both said at the same.

The woman, surely a Forerunner, smirked in a _very_ familiar way, swishing her long brown hair slightly as she shook her head good-naturedly "Don't worry, I'll help you guys eliminate the guns, I designed them after all. For now, grab me and it's go. We've talked enough… you have much to learn about channelling your power, younger me, who else is better to teach you about one whose power once nearly rivalled your own? By the way, you should thank your past, which interestingly physically appears almost like John just before he died in one particular round of the Game, which I admit I'm not entirely familiar with. If it wasn't for her the Cybran Nation would have fallen centuries ago and you wouldn't get nearly the happy path you walk now. There are so many times when one of you could have died… and you wouldn't have received nearly as large a power boost to begin with, thank her for that. When she shared her sight of your future and our past with me, I was nearly overwhelmed by it all… I will tell you of what she told me to reveal to you later. For now, grab me and get ready to deal with those fanatics."

As soon as Liara's hands closed around the pink crystal a faint vibration ran through the room. The Covenant slowly rose from behind their balcony ledges, looking down upon the crew standing around the circular pedestal. A pair of Hunters roared before firing their Fuel Rod Guns at the group, which fired everywhere at once into the surrounding balconies. John had to yank Liara's avatar, which seemed to be in a sort of a trance, out of the way of the green projectiles, as her barriers were inactive.

Thousands of Covenant weapons opened up, but not on the armoured warriors firing on them, instead Needler, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Carbine, Needle Rifle and Plasma Rifle munitions soared across the space to strike away at the two Hunters that had hunkered first. Even their shields succumbed within a minute from the sheer torrent of firepower directed at them. "The Fragment of Divinity is not to be harmed!" The Elite seemingly in command bellowed "Don't know what the hell that blue-skinned deformed human is doing there, but CHARGE THEM!"

"Oh great…" Tali mumbled, before putting away her Shotgun and SMG combo, yanking a familiar barrelled weapon off her back "THE EARTH WILL BURN!" She yelled, laying down a long sheet of Purifying Flame as the other Squad members opened fire on the Covenant that poured into the large clear room. It was a total kill zone as volleys of Infantry Heavy Weapons fire scythed down dozens of soldiers and assault-type weapons cut down everything else.

"We gotta move!" James shouted as he volleyed several grenades into the horde closing in on them.

"No shit Sherlock!" Jack shouted back, throwing down volleys of Shockwaves that tore many, many Covenant troops to scrap just like what the other psychic-capable troops were doing. Mordin and Garrus were stationed at their deployed heavy weapons and firing incessantly, but there were just too many… too many…

Before their shields could buckle, the squad managed to get out of the room via their entrance door. Then they QP Packed their way up the tunnel and piled into the waiting airlocks of the evac Revenant. The Strategic Bomber deposited one bomb on a timed detonation sequence and lifted off, boosting straight up from the installation just before it began being shoved down by a Gravity Lift of all things… Suddenly the Crystal spoke again "Get the fuck out of my way!" It shouted just before the gravity beam emitters fried and caused a couple explosions in the cargo bay of the ship above them and the Revenant surged forward away from the site. The Covenant troops managed to get out of the tunnel just before the Proton Bomb there detonated and washed out the tunnel much like mouthwash would wipe out bacteria.

The area was cleared out by orbital bombardment form the _Ascendant Justice_ mere moments later. Inside the leaving Revenant Liara took the Crystal out and looked at it again "So, what did you mean you were me?"

"Weren't you listening? I am an imprint of the minds of one of your past lives, one of the more important ones that were actually in this string universe. I met one of the other more important ones eventually and she shocked me with what she saw of the past and future. Since both you, well, me, and John are still alive and not completely shattered, and the same goes for James and Tali, I can surmise her plan worked." The crystal's image looked balefully at James and Tali when it did that.

"An imprint… sounds like an Ihan memory crystal." Kasumi commented "And a step beyond Grey Box technology."

"Well, I basically shaped this crystal from my energy… wait, the Protoss are still around?" the image of the woman that projected from the Crystal seemed overjoyed at the news. "It seems when we fired Halo that the Flood wasn't the only thing immune to it after all. I guess all Xel'Naga i.e. Reaper creations are… interesting. Anyways, back to business, you the later incarnation of me have a lot to learn… this will be easier if I just transmit most of the knowledge into your head."

"Wait, are you sure this is safe?" John asked.

"Oh it's perfectly safe, she'll be able to control her powers better when it comes to large scale projects, larger than… oh, so you used that technique with water too? Seems it's one that most of us have used with him." The image winked at John and he suddenly had a very good idea just which technique she was talking about. "You'll also be able to fool starship sensors with your Hallucinations after this. After all, it wasn't easy helping John create enough illusions to hammer the Flood again and again…"

"Do it." Liara stated calmly.

"Okay then…" the crystal said before it began glowing brighter. A field of some sort sprung up around Liara, and she began screaming in realization as her mind was flooded with information about power regulation compared to the brute force tactics she'd used in the past to project her avatar. Said avatar slumped to its knees before falling flat on its face. Needless to say, before it could hit the ground chest-first John Shepard had already run solidly into the barrier. She laid there, twitching slightly, as her brain began to assimilate information. Centuries' worth of additional experience, skills passed from lifetime to lifetime, memories of tens of thousands of battles at ranges from hand-to-hand to galactic, and what was most shocking… using even more, even stranger abilities by mere thought alone. After that came the newest memories before the current life she led, memories of tens of thousands of ACU battles across many hundreds of planets in defence of the Cybran Nation.

Her mind was being overwhelmed with knowledge and experience, yet somehow her identity as Liara T'Soni held firm. No, scratch that, that had always been her name, ergo it held firm, but the truly disturbing part was that her Asari identity held when obviously so many of her past lives were not Asari… She wasn't even sure what some of them were, though she had momentarily glimpsed a few that looked rather Asari. There was no identity, emotion or anything attached to the knowledge, it was just that, raw knowledge that flooded her mind…

* * *

><p><em>Orbit over Reach, January 19, 3872<em>

"We're detecting fifty additional undamaged Covenant warships waiting on the scene to ambush us as soon as we enter Slipspace. They haven't been able to drop out because of the jammers" EDI reported. "Sadly some of the Ascendant Justice's shield generators were damaged in the firefight just now. Repairs with Huragok are a lot slower than normal repairs for us, and those shields will take a while to recharge fully."

"Damn, well, we'll go face them anyways, toy with them a bit, do we have enough shields to take them for a while at least?"

EDI paused for a moment "Yes, yes we do."

"Good, then we'll take them on and show them how stupid they were to let us nab a Super Carrier. Bring the _Autumn_ too, might be useful. Is the Ground crew back yet?"

"Yes, though John is currently fretting over Liara's mental health…" EDI said just as the door into the bridge opened.

"I told you John I'm perfectly fine, besides, even if I wasn't you can't do anything about it because I'm an AVATAR!" Liara enunciated slowly as they came in the door.

Hannah smirked "Good for you, John can be a real ass sometimes, just like I can be, for example, thoroughly vandalizing the _Truth and Reconciliation_ plus all the Covenant then aboard was one of my more asinine moments. Make sure you make it clear to him who's in charge, if he's anything like his father, he will secretly love being dominated… though you should save that for later, we're about to go have a shoot-out in Slipspace with a small Covenant fleet." Needless to say, most of the ground crew was laughing while John was banging his head against a wall by this point.

"Ariel, and all the rest of the Reach Defence Groups, our job here is finished, we've bled the Covenant dry here, leave by warp, low warp, until you can get out of the Hurricane, or at least this area, then jump back toward Earth." Hannah directed the other three tired commanders, who hadn't gotten any real sleep in the past three days. "I'll take the Ascendant Justice and the Pillar of Autumn and go eliminate that Covenant group still loitering around in Slipspace, also, I found out about a Covenant rallying point, now that this new wave of offensives has petered out. You guys go back and get patched up, we're still fresh and will handle that fleet. Apparently they've conquered the Race homeworld and are using the Tau Ceti system as a staging point for a fleet, a big fleet."

"If you're sure Hannah… you know we CAN go with you…" Hackett asked. He looked ridiculous, wearing a large, by now mostly decorative bandage over one eye (he had not been wearing armour when a console had overloaded and, shockingly, exploded in his face) that had already been fixed by medi-gel. Still, it kept the light out, as the eye would likely be sensitive to bright light for another day or so.

"No Supreme UEF Commander, or should I just say Steven, you should go get yourself a pirate eye-patch, complete with electronic add-ons to enhance your badass image." Seth-Thauum cut in from his own ship, his arm in a sling and one of Tychus Findlay's EB Cigars sticking out of the side of his mandibles just for coolness factor "After all, while the injury's still there you might as well take advantage of it and make it look cool."

Hackett facepalmed, careful not to move the bandage "Seth, this is NOT a time for jokes." He growled.

"And I'm not joking, I'm saying that we should get back to helping Rhiza and Dostya coordinate re-building the Fleets." Seth snapped back.

Ariel was as usually chatting away with Hannah over the recent events and the Flood threat while the two over-aged children argued. "So in other words the next time we see such a ring we find the Flood Containment Facility and immediately YO it to hell?"

Hannah nodded "That sounds about right, remember, the Flood are even more dangerous than the Zerg in that the Zerg believe in self-determination. The Flood exists solely to serve the Reapers, though Urz has told me they form their own Overmind called Gravemind to do so. Gravemind is, like the original Overmind, indoctrinated, and will be indoctrinated as soon as it spawns because of the genetic programming in the Flood genome that forbids them from mutating out of control. The Zerg rose up against the Reapers once and were smashed down and indoctrinated for it. They didn't want another costly fight with more of their creations after the Zerg and Protoss."

Ariel frowned thoughtfully "How are we going to tell the Protoss that their mighty Xel'Naga re a race of psycho starships?"

Hannah merely shrugged "We're not, at least, not until we absolutely have to… besides, that main Xel'Naga artefact thing tests as Forerunner origin anyways, probably an initial prototype of a Flood-cleansing weapon they had been working on but failed to bring online in time. Seth, talked some sense into Steven yet?"

The one "old" (more like middle-aged) member of the Elite Four looked away from the sulking young (by Coalition standards) Supreme UEF Commander and nodded "Yeah, we're all going back, except for Hannah and her two ships. It's time we got these tubs patched up, the Covenant really knew how to keep up the pressure…"

"Good, we'll see you in a bit back at Earth." Hannah stated simply "Rendezvous there in four days, drop by the shipyards and stuff first, but keep it quiet, we don't need the Covenant finding any Intel whatsoever about us."

"We know how to do things, Hannah, you're not the only Elite Four member present, we're all here…" Hackett stated.

"Yeah, yeah, see you guys later, Hannah Shepard out." A series of affirmative clicks replied to her message. She turned to her crew "Alright, now we're gonna spin up the _Ascendant Justice's_ Slipspace drives and the _Autumn's_ as well. Be ready for jump at any time. Let's go kill us some more Covenant warships. These won't be damaged like the other ones so it'll be a bit harder, alright? Good. Now remember, with Slipspace physics, we can only deploy Strategic Bombers and that's it, none of the other units are of sufficient Mass to not take damage in Slipspace. Keep your eyes on the screens for any ambushers we don't notice, EDI will be controlling the Ascendant Justice… James, Squads Two and Three, get your ass over there just in case."

They waited until the quick crew transfer was complete and watched the other ships jump away via Warp before they themselves deactivated the Slipspace Jammers and opened portals into the dimension of reality known as Slipspace… Shockers and Revenants fanned out of the Autumn's bays and docking clamps as they turned to face the Covenant ships, the Ascendant Justice already firing its plasma projectors and plasma turrets in the first volley, completely sync with the Pillar's assorted beam weapons (which were far, FAR weaker).

The Covenant ships turned to flee from the Super Carrier, but it was fast enough to keep pace while the Pillar of Autumn followed leisurely, both lines dumping all the firepower they could on the other. The problem was that Slipspace this time… was NOT normal. The Crystal in Liara's avatar's pocket hovered in the air and the image of a certain Forerunner woman popped up again "Oh, sorry, I must not have been watching my self-sustaining thought processes, here, let me tone it down a little and… wait, Liara, you should be the one to try this, try directing those plasma beams into the Covenant ships instead of them drifting around randomly everywhere on the Slipspace currents beyond a couple kilometres range from the nearest large mass."

Hannah Shepard had facepalmed, as had EDI, while Liara was trying to use her mind to control Slipspace enough to direct the weapons "How could we have forgotten?" The two women moaned before perking up and realizing something "Hey, at least the Mavors still work! The rounds have enough mass to not fly about randomly…" She watched some of the Covenant's own munitions run into their own ships, as well as one beam smacking into the _Ascendant Justice's_ shields "Well I guess they don't have IFFs in their plasma projector beams after all, good thing our weapons do have IFFs in each shot." She said, her cheeriness slipping a little as more shots spiralled randomly through Slipspace to hit the _Justice's_ and _Autumn's_ shields. "Okay Crystal thing, John might have told me about you a bit but can you please make Slipspace begin working in our favour now?"

"Just a sec, Liara's learning quickly how to use her power more efficiently, instead of Brute-Forcing everything." The woman whose ghost hovered above the pink crystal said, smirking, holding up a hand, watching her Asari reincarnation work hard at channelling her powers in a way she had never done before.

The pressure on the _Autumn_ and _Ascendant Justice _began to let up abruptly as Slipspace smoothed itself just enough and just in time to turn the vast majority of fired energy pulses back into the shields and then hulls of the Covenant warships. Needless to say, the running battle against the running warships didn't last long after that.

"Is it just me or are you leaving a trail of energy in Slipspace? And we went faster than normal Covenant drives can pull off…" Hannah asked the crystal suspiciously. "You do realize the trail's a breach of the Shepard Protocol right?"

The woman the crystal projected rolled her eyes "Oh please, manipulation of Slipspace like what I was doing requires emission of that energy, I don't normally do that sort of shit."

"I really wish you'd tell me more about my past lives though." Liara grumbled from where she sat, catching her breath after using her powers in new and unusual ways. If she had actually been physically present, then it wouldn't have been a problem for her but using it through an avatar was relatively tiring…

Hannah snorted acknowledgement as she went back to her console, checking up on things, including the application of repairs to the _Ascendant Justice_. "Great, anyways, let's head to this station, the Unyielding Hierophant, before we go back to Earth, and crystal thing?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't mark our path for the Covenant."

"No problem, I won't, in fact, I might just completely render us undetectable in slipspace to them just for kicks."

Hannah quirked one side of her lips "That won't be necessary, but thanks for the offer anyways."

"Oh, and by the way, you were right about the artefact, it was my first attempt at creating a Flood-specific killing device, too bad we couldn't scale it up in time to prevent the Halos from having to be used." The Crystal woman said morosely. "Still, perhaps that was for the better, otherwise the Protoss probably wouldn't have survived, unless they used their Motherships to escape beyond the blast radius."

"The Motherships are THAT old?" Hannah asked sceptically as they entered Slipspace again.

"Yes, the original hulls were, the Protoss seem to have technologically regressed for some time after the Aeon of Strife, it took them a long time to recover, today's Motherships are much stronger than their predecessors with all their upgrades… in fact, the Tal'darim Mothership that EDI has communicated to me of was a rather… antique model, most of its systems were not fully powered up, the main gun was severely damaged and would be called non-functional by the original specs. In fact, other than Covenant Super Carriers, Assault Carriers, Forerunner Key-ships and Dreadnoughts, Protoss Motherships today are probably the best warships out there, and there are a LOT of them waiting to be reclaimed for use."

"Okay, since the Protoss are mostly allies…" Hannah said slowly "You can tell them about this forgotten part of their history later. By the way, the Zerg are on our side now."

The Crystal woman sniffed snobbishly "I noticed the psionic taint of that foul creature…"

_I take offence at that._ Urz thought from where he was moving around, looking at consoles.

The Crystal woman snorted "That was the point, the Zerg Overmind allied with us in the fight against the Reapers, then after we drove the Reapers back turned on us and our Protoss allies, seeding the Flood among us to grow almost unnoticed until it was too much to contain and open war broke out."

_After the Overmind rebelled the Reapers attacked Zerus!_ Urz shouted mentally, tapping into the Zerg genetic memory for data. _They captured and indoctrinated the Overmind and partially indoctrinated the Cerebrates! They used us as a template to create a weaker version, the Flood, and then had our transports deposit it onto many of your worlds. It was your pride over beating back the Reaper invasion that blinded your government to the threat until it was too late! We tried to warn you, well, your Didact anyways, but you remember…_

"Right, he brought it up but the Senators laughed him off at the time and called him paranoid…" The Crystal woman seemed subdued, chewing on her lip. "Maybe I shouldn't blame you after all, you were enslaved… and now you're fighting alongside my kind's descendants and relatives to make sure the Reapers fail for good this time… I'm sorry for the accusations."

Urz waved it off in amazingly human-like fashion, though his middle finger aka arm claw was still folded back along his arm. _Don't worry about it, it's in the past, I just need to know I can trust you if I stick my ass in your face during a firefight._

"Don't even think about it…"

_I'm not stupid enough to try forcing a crystal up my ass. That would be painful._

"Damned straight" The Crystal Woman responded with her arms crossed over her chest before looking over to Hannah Shepard who was laughing her ass off.

"Sorry, it's just that we're not on active combat duty right now so I can express my opinion freely…" Hannah chuckled some more before settling down again.

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><p>AN: Anyone else notice in First Strike (book) how Super Carriers are supposed to be so good they can prevail against whole fleets but the _Justice_ was so easy to kill for the Cruisers? Ergo I made the Super Carriers a lot tougher (not just weapons amped up), also explains why they're so dangerous. I suspect one vs. one Super Carrier can destroy a Forerunner Dreadnought (wonder if the Migrant Fleet would care to offer one of its seven Dreadnoughts that they found underground for testing…) without being destroyed.

I'll be off-line and off FFN for what is most likely going to be nearly a week unless the hotel I'll be staying in has internet, so it'll take a week before I can upload again. Then again if it has internet then I'll upload in a couple days.

REVIEW!


	19. An Old Tactic

A/N: Scaling up the Unyielding Hierophant somewhat so Super Carriers don't look absurd next to the repair and refit station.

As for confusion by an anon reviewer about the "Zombie Flashback", that is in SupCom: ME 2, directly before this fic, more specifically it's in Chapter 50: Destiny's Way.

I wanted to put up Ch 4 of Supreme Balance before this but I forgot the newest version of the file on my home PC, damn it… oh well. At least I've got internet where I am now...

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><p>Chapter 19: An Old Tactic<p>

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872_

"Crystal, could you tell me more about yourself?" Liara asked. They'd finally finished clearing out the ship of all remaining Covenant, as a few had survived venting the entire ship to vacuum thanks to being inside locked toilet cubicles and getting their vacuum gear on fast enough.

The ghostly image shook her head "You need to find out about your past on your own, young one, I will tell you what you need to know all in good time…"

"Well, could you at least explain to me why you're a pink crystal? Protoss Ihan crystals, their equivalent of you, are green, aren't they?"

"Well I originally was reddish … until Commander T'Soni revealed some things she had seen about the past. It was an alternate reality that our spirits had been reborn into, so she could only see fragments, and it was terrible…" The Crystal woman shook her head sadly. "There was only war, John, that version of him, managed to defeat the enemy and secure peace, but at the last moment he took a shot through the chest from a red crystal. It exploded shortly thereafter and needless to say he died… again. It really tore that incarnation of us up, but the substance that killed him provided a basis for the origin of your race in that universe. After she told me about this one moment she had seen of our past, well, future for me, I immediately re-coloured myself to this pink hue you see now. The crystal that killed John WAS shaped just like I am, you know, for years after that meeting and information exchange with Commander T'Soni I had nightmares about being the cause of his death…"

Liara shivered slightly, looking at the large crystal shaped almost like your typical tank gun shell (but with angles and ridges instead of smooth curves) from back in the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth. "Makes sense, it would be painful to know… What else did this Commander T'Soni tell you?"

"She showed me some of the times one of you could have perished or otherwise been separated from one another. She had by that time already overcome the hurdle of your condition by directing the Cybran Nation on the course it needed to embark upon to win the Infinite War, and she revealed to me her plan to save you from this horrific cycle that we can only call the Game. I shall say no more."

"I've just realized one thing… my past self is a huge drama queen, and she follows the laws of anime a bit too much."

The Forerunner woman's spirit imprint (A/N: like how Cortana would be an imprint of Dr. Halsey but deeper) smirked. "Good, I haven't become stupid from being emotionally traumatized so many times. You won't believe how much pain The Game has inflicted on us four, it's a good thing I only gave you knowledge, the emotions would have crushed your brain in an instant."

Liara frowned, nodding "Alright… I guess… talk later, thanks for the help."

"Anytime, later version of me, especially if you want to learn how to control your hideously overpowered psionics with better precision." The image said before vanishing, leaving the pink crystal sitting there, humming with energy still.

* * *

><p><em>Tau Ceti System, January 19, 3872<em>

If there was any additional evidence, any whatsoever, needed to confirm that the Race was thoroughly screwed, the 60-kilometer station in orbit over the system's lone gas giant, the _Unyielding Hierophant_, was it. It consisted of two identical teardrop-like sections joined almost like a dumbbell would be, with a central ring connected by thousands of spokes to the main hull sections acting as an anchorage for the one thousand-plus Covenant warships around it. Several dozen Assault Carriers and a similar number of Battleships made up the core of the fleet while smaller CCS Heavy Cruisers, Cruisers, Carriers, Destroyers, Frigates and Corvettes made up the rest.

The Race had been effectively left alone, though they were stuck on their planet courtesy of all the orbital stations, ships and such having been vaporized, usually by pulse laser or plasma turret fire. It was easier than target practice for the Covenant to shoot down the slowpokes, a welcome change of pace after the hellish difficulty associated with Coalition warships, considering just how nimble the latter could be.

The _Pillar of Autumn_ jumped in-system, relying on passive stealth and active camo to disguise its presence. Starships, unlike Cybran T3 aerospace craft, did NOT have active stealth systems by default or otherwise, even though the POA was an experimental-ish ship, having far more HMLs installed than normal Heavy Destroyers, it did not have active stealth. As soon as they picked up just how many starships were in-system, and the sheer size of the station the ships were surrounding, Hannah Shepard came up with what was perhaps the most psycho plan she had ever conceived in her life. "Guys, we are going to infiltrate with a single Gemini, get on that station, and rig the reactors to overload and blow, from the power readings I'm getting that should be enough to destroy at least a large swathe of the Covenant fleet in the area, and with their obsession with YOU, we'll be able to lure them in." Hannah pointed triumphantly toward the Crystal.

"I'm not about to let myself get destroyed, you know that, right?" The Crystal's projection glowered. "I have a solution that will allow us to use me AND the Ascendant Justice to draw in the Covenant fleet toward the station and allow for us to annihilate it. For now, send down the ground team, I will tell you about the plan in a moment, Liara, remain here, you cannot go on this mission as you are part of my plan, and John, don't worry, I'm not about to harm my reincarnation, might tire her out but she can do this."

John hesitated, looking at Liara, she nodded, and he turned back to the Crystal "Alright, I'll trust you on this…" He looked away and opened squad comms to the crew waiting at the Geminis ready to go. "James, Tali, Mirala, Samara, Urz, with me, Grunt, Garrus, Mordin, Thane, Jack, Jedore, hold our entry zone, the rest of you stay on the ships, especially the Super Carrier, in case of boarders." There was a string of affirmatives "EDI, provide electronic warfare support."

"No problem… actually I should probably come with you guys." The AI woman walked over to John's party, already putting on her armour plates and sealing them together.

"Well… alright EDI, you can come along. Liara, be careful, I'll see you later."

The blue avatar smirked "You should be the one being careful John, I will see you later." He nodded before heading off the bridge.

Hannah Shepard began talking again as she settled back in her command chair, going over all the ship readouts summarized for her perusal. "You know, I feel kind of sorry for the Race, they really should have taken our orbital defence deal. Then we would have beaten back the Covenant before they could establish such a foothold. No matter, since we're effectively out of ships we'll have to make do with their own stations."

* * *

><p><em>Unyielding Hierophant, Tau Ceti System, January 19, 3872<em>

"So many airlocks to choose from… I'm going to pick the least conspicuous one near our target." EDI stated as she sat in the hold, controlling the nimble Air-Superiority-Fighter-converted-lifeboat with mere thoughts from her semi-electronic brain. "The Covenant must conduct regular EVA operations, how inefficient…" Coalition warships had only a few airlocks, mostly because of the fact that there were a larger number of escape craft aboard each than the number of regular crew members. EVA operations were typically conducted from escape craft, aka modified and repurposed Geminis with higher durability but lower firepower. "Alright, now we've got to find a way through this door without venting anything or alerting the Covenant AI…"

Urz suddenly held up a hand motioning for them to all stop doing stuff for a moment, before he flexed out his claw and stabbed it into the airlock door, hewing a hole through it with a few drags, a hole large enough to function as a door. Since the pressures and such were already equalized and the door was not actuated, no sensors were set off as the Devouring One hewed through the second door too "Don't be so surprised" he texted "We might take a while to cut through Coalition plating or Forerunner material, though that's better against normal weapons, not so much against biological organisms, but we can do it, Covenant plating is weaker than either. It's even weaker than Protoss armour!"

"Right, that makes sense." John mumbled as they walked through some access ways that opened into a large clear room, apparently a park of some variety. They were on a solid plateau at one end of the room, with a temple of some sort at the other end "Great, we've got the perfect defence zone. Garrus, Mordin, set up at the corners, here, these will provide you with some extra protection." He yanked two bubble shield emitters, something new they'd come up with a few days ago, from his Quantum Storage (read: Anime Law of Extra-Dimensional Capacitance) and popped one down near each of the deployed heavy weapons. "Maintain active camo and stealth during this entire mission, we CANNOT afford being detected, too many Covenant, they can still Zerg Rush us to death… no offence Urz."

"None taken" was the text message reply.

"Anyways, Grunt, Thane, Jack, Jedore, help those two hold this platform against all comers, and yes Jack juice packs are allowed. James, Tali, Mirala, Samara, EDI, with me. Let's roll, first we're going to QP Pack our way over to that temple and start the havoc there, guys over here, don't fire until you are detected or the enemy starts rallying on this platform."

"I'm seeing Grunts, Jackals, Drones, Elites, and Brutes, no Hunters." Garrus commented as he swung his weapon and its targeting reticule around, noting the number of red hostile highlights his HUD was showing as little X-marks over the targets. It was fortunate that there were ramps and slops he could fire down to take advantage of the "Linear Splash" of his weapon, but Mordin's Light Plasma Cannon was much better when firing down or up because of its "Radial Splash" as the Coalition's weapons designers had termed it jokingly. The terms had stuck only too well…

Regardless, John answered with "Thanks for the info, Garrus, now that we're in position, Holding Crew hold fire for now, Combat crew… ATTACK!"

Garrus winced from his position as he witnessed the explosions of blue that signalled the beginning of the assault and the deployment of Shockwaves by the two Asari on the Combat Crew. Then faint lines of red and trails of yellow, and blue/green signalled the beginning of Laser, Gauss, and Phasic weapons fire down on the Covenant, caught completely off-guard and thrown into chaos as their effectively invisible enemies fired down upon them, killing dozens in seconds. They started firing frantically upward toward the sources of the attacks, but the said sources began to float all over the place as if they were ghosts before John shouted "Cease Fire!" over the comms.

Several minutes later, after the last Covenant stopped firing and the final Brute Shot grenades had hit the ceiling and scattered hot, painful fragments down on the Covenant below, the Covenant were still looking around frantically to see if there were any bodies… John snickered before going back on squad comms, external speakers turned off as usual "Form a line formation and bomb them with grenades." He called, as the crew's shields had recovered by now after they'd hidden behind various pillars.

Needless to say, that caused even more chaos among the utterly bewildered Covenant troops as explosions started going off among them. More Covenant were starting to pour into the room, and the angle of attack was enough that… "Garrus, start sweeping them down! Holding Crew, Fire at will!"

An entire line of covenant troops went down from a two-kilogram slug that whipped through them before another one cut another line of gore in the Covenant ranks. The scene quickly devolved into a massacre, even though the crew had to land and deactivate camouflage systems so their shields could recharge fast enough to handle the volume of fire they were taking. "Combat crew, we gotta move! Follow me!" John barked before charging toward the doorway that was marked by a nav-point. He had both his LBR and Gauss LMG firing away on full auto clearing his path, but it still wasn't enough to make his plasma bayonets redundant as they were buried in Covenant soldier after Covenant soldier. He smashed through them using superior armour strength and basically did not mind anything except his steadily dropping shield bar.

"Gee what's with all the irritability soon-to-be-brother-in-law?" Mirala snorted as they charged, shooting, clubbing, slashing/stabbing, stomping and psychic-ing Covenant along the way. "I know you haven't gotten laid for what, the fifth day now? That's no reason to be so snappish!"

"For the record, Cybrans are better at separating work and leisure than most others. We need to get the job done quickly though." John replied.

Mirala chuckled "Yeah, so you can get back to practicing for when you and my half-sis are going to make those little blue babies of yours… right." She added the last word in a whisper as she remembered that there was never any evidence that Ardat-Yakshi were capable of reproducing at all.

"Let's keep moving." James muttered as they went down the hallway, re-engaging camo and stealth along the way, until they ran out of patience and QP Packed their way through to the core control rooms in the middle of the connecting section of the two halves of the station. "Alright, EDI, work your magic."

"Alright, thirty minutes until all one thousand and twenty-four fusion reactors overload and lose containment, expect a big badda boom when that happens." EDI stated.

Back at the crew's location of entry, the six-person Holding Crew was racking up huge numbers of kills as they kept beating back what seemed to be endless tides of Covenant warriors with full employment of Heavy Weapons. They looked up just in time to see a massive display of fireworks as the _Ascendant Justice_, escorted by several tens of thousands of Aerospace craft that the Pillar had built and then shoved into the super Carrier's bays, headed toward the station at a stately pace, its guns silent for some odd reason even as it took fire… Jedore's comment was "Shepard had better get the job done fast…"

The Combat Crew were currently engaged in close quarters combat as they fought their way out of the reactor control room, the reactor rooms all over the station having locked down and thus prevented defusing of the impending explosions. EDI had managed to flood the Covenant's comm. channels with error messages, so resistance was less coordinated than it probably should have been. Still, it wasn't a fun fight, and Urz lost a hand to a Zealot's plasma sword moments before his other scythe came down and tore the Elite nearly in half in anger. His Zerg regeneration would allow the limb to regrow within about ten minutes, but until then he was left relying on his dual laser pistols built into his armour and his left scythe.

It took a while before they managed to get back out into the atrium they'd entered into, slogging through the corpses of fallen Covenant and noting that Thane was currently down but healing quickly under his armour's ministrations. Garrus had gotten a nice burn mark along one side of his torso plate for sniping a Hunter one too many times, throwing its aim off of Jack and thus hitting him when he didn't have enough shields left. They quickly withdrew through the passage they came in through, Urz helping hack through one of the doors that got tin their way as he was the best at close-quarters for obvious reasons, so he was in the lead, his hand already re-forming with the nutrient supply his armour was feeding him. Normally Zerg would get it from eating Creep, which was a composite tissue that digested minerals, photosynthesized, and recycled materials, in addition to providing substrate for Zerg colonies and their organs (aka buildings), but the armour was giving him all the nutrients he needed (mostly minerals in this case, plus proteins and carbohydrates).

They piled into the Gemini and headed to rendezvous with the _Pillar of Autumn_ as the _Ascendant Justice_ barrelled past them, smashing into and through the central ring structure and crashing to a stop with its prow buried deep in the station's connecting structure. A transmission went out from the Super Carrier to all Covenant warships in the system.

It showed Hannah Shepard standing on the bridge, holding the pink Forerunner Crystal in her hand and looking at the camera "All you Covenant bastards out there, hear my words, I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard, and I have your precious Fragment of Divinity. If you want it so badly, I challenge you all to come grab it, I'll be waiting in the command center of the Ascendant Justice. Don't keep me waiting too long…" The woman smiled devilishly.

A Sangheili entered the frame and barked out "You unworthy, dishonourable brainwashed slaves of the Prophets, if you're stupid enough, you are welcome to try to take this Crystal from us, mark my words, you fools that come, YOU WILL FAIL!" He cackled with his mandibles splayed open before the transmission cut out.

The Covenant ships immediately closed formation toward the comm.-jammed station. The ones further out pushed inward and sent out boarding craft. That was the last thing the ground crew saw before they rounded the nearest moon and docked to the Pillar of Autumn, which had been waiting there. Five minutes later, John broke into the bridge, followed by James and Tali, only to stop still and get bowled over by those behind them. John barely managed to get up fast enough to catch Liara as she pitched face-first onto the floor. He looked up and his eyes grew wide "Mom?"

"Bring in the _Ascendant Justice_ again, destroy these guys, then plot a course for Earth."

* * *

><p><em>Fifteen Minutes Ago… Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, Tau Ceti System, January 19, 3872<em>

"The ground crews are still hacking their way through the millions of Covenant likely to be on that station." Kelly reported.

Hannah Shepard nodded as she kept her eyes on the screens "Good. Crystal, you said you had a way to deal with this without paying any price, what is it?"

"Well, it requires Liara to be physically here, Liara, would you mind terribly if you could go tell Feron you're going to physically be out on a trip?"

Liara stopped seeming phased-out and smirked "I've done that already, just now, so, are you going to recall me?"

"Yes." The Crystal said simply before Liara's real self, clad in Aeon Medium Armour minus helmet appeared on the deck in a swirl of Recall residue and stood next to her avatar.

"Almost feels like having an out-of-body experience." Both said at the same time, as they were currently using the divided attentions of the same mind. That was right before Liara dissipated her avatar and looked at the Crystal with her own eyes for the first time. "What do I need to do?"

"I've used this tactic many times during the Forerunner-Flood War, so I believe it will work for you, now, I've thoroughly scanned that Super Carrier, I'm uploading the image and impressions of it to your mind right now, open up and get ready to receive…"

Liara nodded, clearing her mind "I'm ready… wow, that is a lot of data… a lot of imagery…" Liara shivered, her eyes glassy. Hannah frowned in concern, watching the two… entities, for lack of a better term for the Crystal, interact.

"Make a Hallucination of it." The Crystal finished abruptly.

Liara's eyes flew open in shock. "WHAT?"

"If I could pull off multiple 15-kilometer warships back in the Forerunner-Flood War, and I did that fairly often, then you can pull off a 27-kilometer one, after all, you have many lifetimes' worth of growing power levels more than I did. I'll also help you out." The Crystal said plainly. "Just do it, and center it on ONE Gemini. We can use a transmission to fool the Covenant into thinking we have the crystal on that Hallucination before we crash it into the station and draw them in so we can kill a lot more of their starships without losing anything more than a lot of fighters."

"Hmm, that would mean less one Super Carrier lost, but we would have to bring out the real Ascendant Justice to transfer over all the fighters we've bee stuffing her bays with." Hannah mused. "Let's do this thing." She moved a Gemini ASF out away from all the others and designated it a separate control group, setting up a transmission bouncing protocol on it to use. Then she headed for the clear area near the back of the bridge, used for massive holograms, in this case the set of her photo shoot. She set it up to portray the bridge of the _Ascendant Justice_ before skipping back to her command chair, happily noting that Liara had, with some obvious difficulty, created the Hallucination required for the tactic to work. She started moving the giant fleet of starfighters just transferred into normal space from the real _Ascendant Justice_ and the Hallucination ship itself toward the station, the fighters screening the Hallucinations while the bombers swarmed the enemy as usual.

Liara jerked noticeably when the Hallucination ploughed through the ring structure, snapping it, Hannah couldn't imagine how much strain it would be to access psychic energy for so long, but it was obvious form the brightened glow of the Crystal that it was why the ring actually snapped instead of simply being passed through by the Hallucination. Otherwise, even her stunningly overpowered future daughter-in-law (and that was the direction the couple was headed) could not possibly have pulled such a thing off.

She started her bounced broadcast "All you Covenant bastards out there, hear my words, I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard, and I have your precious Fragment of Divinity. If you want it so badly, I challenge you all to come grab it, I'll be waiting in the command center of the Ascendant Justice. Don't keep me waiting too long…"

Her Communications Officer added his own bit, almost like how he'd sent a communiqué to an old friend named Sesa or something regarding Halo's true purpose back on the Ring. "You unworthy, dishonourable brainwashed slaves of the Prophets, if you're stupid enough, you are welcome to try to take this Crystal from us, mark my words, you fools that come, YOU WILL FAIL!" Thel Lodam cackled, and that finished it…

It was a short time later that the bridge doors slammed open and Liara finally collapsed from exhaustion when the station blew up and her Hallucination was no longer needed. John barely caught her limp body before he looked up at his smirking mother "Mom?"

"Bring in the _Ascendant Justice_ again, destroy these guys, then plot a course for Earth."

Hannah called to Joker before moving over to her son and his girlfriend. "She did well." The Division Commander noted before hitting her comm. channels "Doctor Chakwas to the bridge…" She finished the call and turned back to the barely breathing Asari in her son's arms "how is she?"

"If it wasn't for her armour supporting her needs she would have died from exhaustion, she's slowly stabilizing now, but Division Commander, how could you!" John snarled, looking at Liara's readings, cradling her head.

"I knew she could take it, with the hundred thousand plus years of experience she has now. That's why I did it, over eight hundred of the thousand ships we had detected are now destroyed from the chain reaction the station set off when it lost containment." Hannah Shepard finished her explanation "The rest are heavily damaged, we are dealing with them as we speak. Needless to say, their comm. channels tell me they are wondering where the fuck we got a second Super Carrier from." She frowned as more data showed on her HUD and she shot off more commands over her neural interface. "That's not right, they're more damaged than I had thought… the _Ascendant Justice_ is cutting through those ships like a hot knife through butter… oh right, they're mostly pickets on the outer fringes of the blasts, Cruisers, Carriers, Destroyers, Frigates and Corvettes, no wonder, hmm… Joker, take the _Autumn_ into battle too, make sure we only engage one Covenant group at a time."

"Aye Division Commander…" The two-ship duo managed to swat down over a hundred of the remaining 170 damaged ships before Joker reported "The _Justice_ is starting to lose shields…"

"Well then pull her out, we can deal with the rest, it's not like they're capital ships…"

"Done ma'am, we are engaging the enemy again." Joker reported as the ship's speakers made "pew, pew" noises to signify weapons firing. "It's so much easier to dodge shots with this tub, especially plasma projectors." As if to emphasize his point the pilot boosted down in time for three beams to pass over the _Autumn's_ topside shields and fly onward to dissipate harmlessly in space. The _Autumn_ returned fire ferociously on the Frigates, Corvettes, and few Destroyers the Justice hadn't had time to finish off. The fact that Hannah made the _Ascendant Justice_ pop back out of Slipspace behind the Covenant, outside the range of the jammers she'd deployed, didn't help as the last few truly threatening warships, the Destroyers, buckled under the fifty-four plasma projectors of the vast Super Carrier.

Once the last Covenant warship in-system had been reduced to scrap, Hannah decided to order the destruction of all sensitive technologies left in-system, using Strategic Bombers for the job. Then she headed over to her communications officer, the only Elite currently enlightened that humanity must have some connection to the Forerunners "Your comments were very accurate. Those fools that tried did fail."

The male looked over his shoulder with a toothy smile "Yeah, adds insult to injury, didn't it?"

"Agreed, now open a channel TO the Race homeworld, the second planet. They may be primitive, but they deserve to develop themselves, otherwise they will not have the cultural maturity to handle Covenant technologies."

Thel frowned thoughtfully "That makes a great deal of sense, with all the madness surrounding the idea of Honour on Sanghelios, I wonder now… were we culturally mature enough to study and use Forerunner technologies?"

"Maybe so, maybe not… Time will tell, my friend, time will tell." Hannah said slowly before the Transmission with Home was finally ready for her to transmit. "Emperor Ryssan, we have helped clear the Covenant invaders from your home system, but be careful, they might be back. We may have to use this system as a rally point in our war with the Covenant, but do not worry, we will pay for any collateral damage WE incur in future operations. Now I must go to Earth and warn them of the impending Covenant attack. I hope you can get your orbital defences off the drawing boards and into orbit soon. Good Luck, this is Division Commander Hannah Shepard, signing out." She ended it at that before standing back upright, noting that Chakwas had already carted Liara off to sickbay. "Joker, after we destroy all sensitive technologies out here, plot a course to our rendezvous point with the rest of the Elite Four. I will be either in my quarters or talking to John in the med bay. Lodam, have your friends called back yet?"

"They have indeed, they have been enlightened by the Oracle, or rather, Monitor, and would appreciate any support we can give them."

"Great, send them enough sets of Minimal Body Armour, yes, those designs we came up with, to supply their soldiers with, even the Grunts. Send their Leader a set of Ultra-Light Sangheili Body Armour. Tell them not to tamper with it too much, just hold out until we can send some ships to pick them up."

The first Sangheili to have joined the Coalition side nodded simply before going back to work at his station, requisitioning the goods with authorization. "Understood, Division Commander."

* * *

><p><em>Med Bay, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872<em>

"She'll wake up when she's ready, I'm not going to give her any medications for that, she needs rest." Chakwas concluded. John nodded dumbly at that, then glanced back at the med bay door opening, leaning back in his chair.

An instant later he was on his feet, fuming "I know why you had to do it, but you could have used a different ship, perhaps an Assault Carrier or something so Liara didn't have to nearly kill herself. I just managed to brush up against the broken wall her mind had built, and that strain was PAINFUL, do you understand, Mom?"

"I know, John, I know it must have been painful, but when the hell had we ever been in possession of an Assault Carrier? The Covenant would not have followed it in so zealously or so quickly if we had used anything other than the giant tub they knew we had, the _Ascendant Justice_. That size of signature is too hard to fake without resorting to extreme psychic powers… I'm here to apologize to you for abusing your girlfriend."

John growled low in his throat "Tell Liara that once she wakes up, I'm just hoping she hasn't sustained any brain damage…"

Hannah bit her lip "Crystal, as I've decided to call her, was feeding her energy all along the process, she'll be alright… I'll leave you to your own devices, we need to get back to rendezvous with the Elite Four and muster our strength. Of course we gotta outfit the _Ascendant Justice_ for the inevitable battle of Earth, now that the Covenant, from the archives you hacked onboard the _Unyielding Hierophant_, know where it is. By the way, after she recovers, you two can do whatever you want, I won't intrude on your business any longer."

"I understand, Mom." John was using his more cybernetic mindset to logically think about this rather than his more organic side which was saying he should be screaming in rage toward her for putting Liara in mortal peril. "Does Crystal have anything to say? She came up with the plan after all…"

The pink object floated in through the doorway "Of course I do, after all, Liara's previous lifetime, the one right before this one, had foreseen this as one of the moments where she could either die or become vegetative."

John was nearly hyperventilating now "V… Vegetative? She could have died?" He hissed in fury, wanting to crush the Crystal to dust for coming up with this dangerous plan.

"Don't worry, she's been protected from these occasions, in fact, I think her protection will hold for at least her lifetime and yours. I think the cycle of pain for you, James, Tali, and her might have been disrupted… but I'm not sure…"

"There's a cycle?" John asked sceptically.

"Yeah, whatever deities there are out there really like playing with us, according to what her past life told me she saw using her sight into the past. They always dangle happiness in front of our noses and then whip it, and hope, away from us painfully. Still, there are more important things, such as dealing with the Halos and the Reapers, do not worry about the Game, I think it's been put on hold for now."

"Alright, if you say so… this sounds insane." Johns settled heavily into the seat next to the medical bed (which right now was only being used as a bed), instinctively grasping Liara's hand in his and feeling its warmth and soft, perfect skin against his fingertips.

"Aw… so cute, I remember when me and MY version of you used to be so lovey-dovey all the time… before the Halos." The Crystal said before she started talking to Liara's body. "By the way, we'll show you everything that the Commander showed us sooner or later, so don't ask. You will gain the rest of the knowledge we had, and you will become… the ultimate war machine."

"Come on, Crystal, let's leave them alone for now." Hannah said, turning to leave.

"Why do you call her Crystal?" John asked, trying not to shiver at the declaration of his girlfriend becoming the "Ultimate War Machine".

The Crystal laughed a very familiar laugh "If I referred to every incarnation of me and you as our normal names you'd lose track of all the Liara T'Soni's and John Shepard's that have lived through the cycles of the Game."

John was momentarily stunned "Oh… that makes sense." He said quietly as Crystal and Hannah left.

"They're gone, right?" He nearly jumped in shock as he looked down to meet a pair of deep blue eyes with his own.

"Yeah, how are you feeling, Liara?"

She made a couple smacking sounds with her lips as she stretched. The bed was just that, a bed for her to lie on until she recovered "Tired, a bit tense, but overall alright." She got up and rubbed her eyes tiredly "Come on, John, let's go back to our room, I like sleeping there a lot better."

"Let me ask Chakwas first."

* * *

><p>AN: NO LEMON HERE BUT THERE IS SOME TOUCHING…

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872<em>

"Ah, SOOO nice, so comfy…" Liara said dramatically as she stripped off the last of her clothes and let herself fall face-first onto the bed, nuzzling into the sheets and sighing happily at the very familiar scent that made her feel at home. It was a comfortable temperature inside the room, not chilly enough that clothes were a must but not so warm that sheets, blankets, duvets, comforters, whatever one called them, would make it too hot.

John chuckled as he set aside his armour, changing into casual clothes (Marines wore nothing under their armour for the armour's medical treatment to be more convenient) before walking over and landing a slap on his girlfriend's blue bubble butt, it jiggled just a bit. "Come on Liara, we need to get you washed up, you did sweat a lot from the stress, come on, let's get you cleaned up and then you can sleep all you want."

"Don't want to get up." She mumbled, turning her head and pouting cutely at John before she rolled over onto her side, it was one major downside to having breasts, sleeping on your front wasn't as comfortable as it could have been. "Want to sleep."

"Come on Liara, just a shower?"

"Fine, but you have to pull me up." She extended an arm that he grabbed and helped her up with. Then she trudged off to the bathroom "Come with me, make sure I don't fall asleep in the shower and drown myself." She muttered "You get to wash my back too, I can hardly keep myself awake after all that exertion."

He nodded, trying to keep his eyes off how her butt looked as she moved "No problem, Liara." Though it was rather worrying, considering the fact that her Ardat-Yakshi nature made Liara a bit of a nymphomaniac when it came to John Shepard most of the time. She must have been REALLY exhausted…

"And John, you're allowed to look and touch, just… I don't want to do anything much tonight; I'd probably pass out halfway through." She said, sensing where he was looking and his less than innocent thoughts with their connection.

"No problem, Liara, we can save that for later." John said simply, his eyes once again on the back of her head as he stripped and she adjusted the water temperature to suit them. "I'm so lucky to have you…"

She picked up the rest of the thought and the internal mortification he felt at it "Right, I don't fuss over my crest, unlike humans need to with hair." She chuckled at that "And this doesn't need to dry for so long, and you don't need to be worried about hurting me when you try to wash my hair."

"Well, there are far more substantial reasons, but yes I guess that's one reason." He started helping her lather herself with soap and helping her rinse away the tired feeling from her body. Running his hands over her actual flesh felt different from her avatars, though that wasn't because of her inaccuracy in Hallucination creation.

"Even with all these iterations of the Game that have hurt us so much, our bond still makes the feel of one another different from the feel of any Hallucination, even if the other is the one controlling and feeling through the Hallucination." Liara said, catching on to his thought.

He helped her rinse her head crest off before drawing close to her. She smiled, feeling it despite her eyes being closed and water running down her face, and their lips met for a sweet moment before he pulled back. "I love you, Liara T'Soni."

She moved the shower head so the water was running down her front instead, feeling the warmth of his feeling surround her "I love you too John Shepard."

They rinsed one another off quickly after that before drying themselves and each other off and proceeding to the bed, curling up around one another. "I'm glad you're here." John said simply, holding her close and feeling totally content.

"I'm glad I'm here too." She said, nuzzling him before they said no more. She feel asleep first, John followed her into sleep a short time later as her Synchronize kicked in and evened out their energy levels, just so she wouldn't totally bomb out for a day or so.

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><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872<em>

They'd questioned Crystal (the Crystal) on matters and for some reason it/she had laughed every time Tali said "Keelah". When questioned it refused to reveal why it kept laughing, just that "You'll find out with good time… assuming Guilty Spark actually hasn't gone rampant and destroyed the data, then I may have to tell you just what is so totally LMFAO about the whole mess".

"The Forerunners used texting language?" Garrus had commented.

Crystal raised an eyebrow "Ah, Garrus Vakarian, you know, it's interesting to see that you of all people are back too, and as a Turian no less! You always were close to Turians, Heh, should probably tell you where your current family name first came from… but I won't." Crystal snickered, remembering the vision of the past Commander T'Soni had shown her that would be relevant to this next future.

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><p><em>A long, long time ago…<em>

John Shepard raised an eyebrow "Garrus, are you serious? I mean I know you guys are good with kids but running around with a Turian child on your shoulders on leave? What if he scratches you or does something similarly harmful by accident? So far as we know we're the last humans left, we can't afford losing any more population."

"Come on John, the Halos just fired, now we're taking all these guys home… don't you think the troops should be allowed to play with them one last time?" James asked tiredly from where he was sending off Turian families.

"You know, when I grow up I'm going to be a big tough Chieftain!" The orphaned kid Garrus was playing with exclaimed "And then I'm going to tell everyone we should call ourselves Turians since that's what you call us."

"No need for that little fellow, I think everyone of your species is already starting to call themselves that." Garrus tickled the kid's metallic skin, making him laugh.

"Oh yeah? Well I'm going to give myself the family name Vakarian just like you." The kid said, laughing.

The eagle-nosed man, whose face was quite narrow, giving him an almost avian look, chuckled at that "Feel free, kid, now, run along to your Mom and Dad." They HAD arranged for the kid to be adopted, after all.

"Mom, Dad! I'm going to go by the last name Vakarian from now on, is that alright?" The kid ran off, shouting excitedly.

"After that man you like playing with so much? Sure, go ahead…" The group stopped listening after that as that family left too. Soon, the Turians had been returned to their homeworld, and watched from a safe distance, waving, as the Forerunner ships rose into the skies and departed their world.

Garrus Vakarian, the man with the bird-like nose, would have no clue how the kid he had befriended would indeed become a chieftain, and found the Turian family name of Vakarian for all posterity.

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><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872<em>

"Thane? You too? This almost feels like a family reunion!" Crystal exclaimed as it noticed the Drell "Your family name's origin story is almost the exact same as Garrus's, but I won't tell you until the right time comes up. That is, when what my people left behind recognizes the Reclaimers."

"That's quite alright." The Drell stated amicably, his Kepral's Syndrome had effectively been fixed, it would go no further, but recovery would take a long time…

"Hmm, Samara? You too? OMFG, this feels like the old guard all over again… not saying you're old though… well, you are but that's beside the point."

EDI was staring at the Crystal before she looked up "Guys, does anyone think Crystal seems a bit… off?"

Kelly snorted from her station "The term, EDI, is ECCENTRIC."

"This platform fails to detect any real roundness in the crystal, it is quite jagged… projected image aside." Legion stated "Though if one takes the meaning of unusual thought or speech patterns, one can note that with only one specimen of its kind in our possession one does not have a large enough sample to judge usual and unusual."

Jedore had taken to thudding the front of her helmet against the wall by this point before she abruptly looked up. "How does our armour and such match up to yours?"

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><p>AN: If you've watched Halo Legends: Origins Part I then you will know the Forerunners' ground weaponry technology was stunningly bad against small targets. Their armour was also TERRIBLE, and I mean SHIT. They can collapse under the weight of a few dozen Infection Forms, oh my god… no augmentation ability AT ALL. I'm going to have to put the source population of Forerunners as even more primitive now…

I'm serious, I went to watch that video and I could not believe my eyes, Forerunner Infantry Equipment is CRAP, the sizes of the explosions their guns could pull is more akin to an INL's blast anyways (have you seen 500 kg of TNT go off at once, big badda boom!) and their firing rate is absolutely TERRIBLE.

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><p>Crystal thought only for a moment "Your infantry weapons balance firing rate and firepower, in fact, I am quite sure that they are more effective than ours ever were, since even though we were effective at delivering firepower our firing rates were terrible. We pretty much didn't have an army, because we'd had peace for so long and the Protoss and Zerg fought alongside us when the Reapers first came. They basically constituted the bulk of the Allies' ground forces while we handled the heavy-duty space combat… still, one versus one that Super Carrier you have would probably fare quite well against one of our Dreadnoughts. If you wanted to compare your ground weaponry to ours… no comparison, your infantry is superior in every respect except firepower per shot, and your vehicles make up for that gap. After all, we never designed any Combat Skins, as Spark likes to term them, above Class Eight or so, Sixteen was a theoretical maximum for us. You guys are at Classes Fourteen and Fifteen, excellent, I expected no less, after all, Forerunner civilization developed in peace for one thousand years, you guys were at war with one another for twelve hundred, so… wait, I'm revealing too much of our origin story. Still, our fleet was the best around, gave the Reapers a good walloping… so good they had to attack our allies and indoctrinate them as Urz says happened. They created a version of the Zerg called the Flood and used that against us. We never built guns for crowd control, and the Reapers had indoctrinated enough Protoss to begin their Aeon of Strife, so we didn't have Colossi support anymore. That was our biggest error… and our last error."<p>

"Why can't you just tell us your origin story?" Grunt butted in bluntly.

"Because it's no fun that way, it'll be interesting to see how you guys react to the truth behind our kind…" She glanced around at the whole crew with very familiar blue eyes and winked before disappearing.

"Crystal? CRYSTAL! Damn, no response, well, I guess it's time to go back to our rooms and relax." James sighed, the crew left, grumbling. Needless to say James Shepard was last to leave and needless to say as soon as he left a three-fingered white and green clad hand on his matte black chest plate stopped him.

"Not so fast James Shepard, who said you can relax? I sure won't be relaxing… at least not for the next hour or so…" The Quarian techie said, tilting her helmeted head and crossing her arms over her chest, tapping one three-toed foot impatiently.

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><p>AN: Sorry, not in the mood for lemons right now, _maybe_ next chapter, we all know it'll be filler and a lot of bitter sarcasm from a certain Supreme Commander who's the best the Covenant have.

How interesting is it that the Old Guard is (most of the time) together in some combination or another across incarnations?

REVIEW!


	20. Arbiter Tribunals

A/N: Yeah, Arbiter Tribunals are Protoss buildings, I know, there's a reason this chapter is called this.

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><p>Chapter 20: Arbiter Tribunals<p>

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><p>AN: WARNING: THIS FIRST SECTION WILL BE A LEMON! I decided to add this once I found the rest to be too short.

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><p><em>James Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872<em>

There was one thing to say about Tali never wearing her environment suit anymore, either because she didn't need it or, more often, when out and wandering about in public, because her armour did a much better job anyways: James Shepard found himself thrown back onto the bed as soon as Tali finished stripping his armour off, having discarded her arm plates and leg plates, she pounced on him, her silvery eyes glowing fiercely and a cat-like grin upon her beautiful face. She strongly resembled what he would term a night elf with her smooth lavender skin, bluish teal hair that she'd let grow out, and softly glowing eyes. James had a suspicion that that may be due to something long in the past, but that was the past, the way she pinned him down, her smooth white and green torso plate pressed against his front, was in the present. She looked his uncovered body like a tasty morsel and he shivered in excitement. Were it anyone else he would have lashed out to remove the threat, but then again Tali had never brought forth any kind of hostility in him from the first moment they met… Why, he didn't know besides the "Past Incarnations" explanation, and he didn't care as their lips met.

After they broke apart so Tali could carelessly throw aside her armour plates, revealing her pert breasts to James, he chuckled deep in his throat "Eager, aren't we?"

"I've missed you." Tali said breathily. James had helped her get over her shyness back on the first Normandy, but this was still unusually eager for her. The fact that they generally went at it every night and often in the morning didn't help the five-day break.

James smiled, holding his girlfriend's warm, lithe form against himself almost possessively, enjoying the feel of her warmth in the cool room. Coalition ships were always at a cool enough temperature that T-shirts were required but shirts were not uncomfortable either, therefore intimacy was very comfortable and warmth felt good "I missed you too Tali." He said, breathing deeply with his nose buried in her blue-teal hair.

She rubbed her body against his and hummed as she felt his muscles move under his skin "Hmm… I missed to too James. This feels good, your skin on mine…" She looked up at him suddenly with mischief in her eyes "well, it would feel better if you weren't prodding me, but I like that too." James smiled back and tried to roll them over, but, as many Human and Quarian males had discovered, the former after the Quantum Age, womankind was stronger on average and could keep them pinned down now. "I want you to milk me, James, feel them, suckle them… ugh…" She groaned as he did as he was told, latching onto one of her nipples and biting softly on it, it hurt just a little, but it was a pleasurable pain and well within her tolerances.

She ground against his abdomen a little harder with her wide, beautifully curved hips as he tugged playfully at her nipples before letting the completely hardened buds go to suckled at the skin of the sensitive mounds. James sucked her light purple skin into his mouth as much as he could before pulling back and letting her leave his mouth with soft pops. He moved back up to her lips and began kissing his lover fervently, his body betraying him just a bit with how eagerly it prodded away at her as he asked for permission with his eyes as they half-sat on the bed, against the headboard.

Tali pulled away from his lips and giggled at the sudden pout he gave her "You don't need to ask, James, just like I don't ask you, I'm yours, you're mine, that's the end of it." She said, their breath mingling, before her hands moved down and pulled him with her down the bed "This'll be easier on your back, more flexibility for me too." She explained just before she impaled herself on his fully hardened member. "I think you corrupted me, James, turned me into a nymphomaniac. The armour hardening my immune system to almost be like a typical human's doesn't help either." She gasped out as they began to move, as usual in sync with one another, his mouth latched onto her neck.

James let the part of Tali's neck he'd been suckling on go "You know, Tali, we don't have to do it so much if you don't want to…" He was abruptly silenced by her getting upright and pulling him with her, stuffing his mouth with one lavender breast. She wasn't that large, but they were comfortable handfuls of soft yet firm flesh.

Tali glared down at him with lust-hazed eyes as their lower bodies kept meeting rhythmically "I'm only worried I'm enjoying this far too much, James, you're turning me into a sex addict, and I love every second of it." She shuddered involuntarily as James groaned approval directly into the nipple he had between his teeth much like its sister had been moments ago.

James finished moving them into another position, crossing his legs under her in a typical lotus pose, never once disrupting their steady rhythm "You REALLY know how to appeal to men, don't you? I mean, the sex addict comment, the noises you make… damn Tali, it's hard to believe we were both completely inexperienced before our first time…"

Tali was thoroughly enjoying making love to her mate "We weren't, James, remember what Crystal said? We've been together for countless lifetimes…" They stopped talking for a while as they kissed each other some more "though most of those were relatively brief, tragic affairs, we're still well versed enough in one another's likes and dislikes to be better than porn stars at pleasuring one another. They have to fake it… orgasms, I mean, we… don't really…" She was beginning to shiver again, feeling that particular feeling, familiar to her when nude and in her lover's presence, well up within her body, her cunt almost fibrillating around him.

"You feel like you're vibrating… so good…" James moaned as he sped up, having a feeling that that pleasant quivering of Tali's insides would make him cum soon. It would be embarrassing to shoot before she could reach her own climax…

"Keep going, you're going to make me cum…" Tali panted as she sped up on her own end as well, slamming her hips into his, yearning for the release of quite a few days' worth of sexual desire. She got there before he did, her slick love tunnel contracting around him, what had been a hot, wet and snug glove-like fit turned into a gentle but pleasurable grasping. It was to say the least quite different from the strangulation of his dick that happened to James on the couple occasions when Tali had taken the time to clean herself out and they'd tried anal sex, but it was still good enough to milk his semen from his dick. Her eyes were rolled into her head as she leaned against him, trembling as her muscles kept twitching and he kept still, buried to the hilt inside her, pushed snugly up against her cervix and spewing dollops of hot, sticky goo into her body. "So much cum… so hot, so good…" She whimpered.

James groaned at her words and his dick gave her a couple extra splashes as if in reward for her dirty talk. "Do you want to go for more Tali? We can stop if you'd like."

She smiled at him, revealing her perfectly white teeth "You're sweet, but you know perfectly well it's been too long." She lifted herself off him and watched excess cum, what her body could not hold inside her, dribble out over the long, thick and still hard shaft like icing over a sugary treat of some variety. She licked her lips as she moved her hips, as if decorating a cake with the white semen that leaked from her body. Then she looked up "Hmm, your tool seems like it's gotten dirty…" She dug three fingers into herself, scooping out some more of the slowly jellifying white material before sticking her fingers in her mouth and sucking them clean "I should clean it before we continue plumbing my insides, hmm?"

James laid back down flat on the bed, careful to avoid the wet spot Tali had left, the cleaning fields would clear that up once it cooled down (they didn't reclaim anything organic that was not cold and dead) "Of course… turn around Tali, it's been a while since I said hello up close to your sweet little pussy." She did so happily, her cunt over his mouth as she ran her hot mouth along one side of his shaft, licking up the cum she'd drizzled his cock with.

Tali could feel James' tongue lapping up the juices that covered her inner thighs and the little patch of teal pubic hair she had decided to keep, since he liked burying his nose in it and smelling her. She moaned as his tongue ran along the sensitive insides of her labia and explored any and all areas of her pussy his dick had not reached. She moved her hand up and down his dick slowly as she leaned toward the base, noting his scent, masculine, heady, but not too heavy, perfect… Her tongue zipped out to flick lightly against his scrotum, and she felt him gasp into her love canal, making her exhale sharply in approval on his still wet and slick dick. Perhaps she should get to the actual sucking soon, or it would start to dry and get sticky, maybe even chafe. It would be a pity to see so much good cum wasted like that. She decided to say it out loud just because of how good it felt to dirty-talk her mate. "Hmm, maybe I should really start sucking soon, or all this cum, yours and mine, might start getting dry and chafe, and we don't want that, do we?" A hum on her clit and James' huge cock twitching was her reply, she shivered just a bit and closed her legs tighter about her lover's head to encourage him as she leant in close enough for her lips to touch the tip as she spoke "It would be a pity to see so much delicious cum go to waste, wouldn't it? You want me to suck your dick nice and clean, don't you?"

The twitch that slapped her bottom lip with the tip was all the answer she needed as she opened her mouth and took him in, pushing down, suddenly grateful that James' dick could bend just a bit and that he could handle many angles, as to shove the entire thing in would require her to be along his belly and pulling his hips up into her mouth. She somehow managed though, fitting the whole length into her mouth and throat, putting a hand up to her throat as she held her breath, feeling and rubbing against the bulge there, it felt good, somehow, and it tickled a little, and so she sort of chuckled in her throat at the feeling, though it came out as more of a volley of hums, James immediately pulled her up when he saw her hand on her throat, removing himself from her mouth and airways. "Tali, don't choke yourself!" He said, pulling her around only to see a deep frown on her face. "But your hand… universal choking motion…" He said weakly before realizing how stupid he sounded.

"I was feeling it stretch my neck, James. Your noticing it was sweet, but I know how much of you I can take, James, and I know how to breathe while I'm shoving you down my filthy little mouth." She said sultrily, smiling and licking up a bit of residual semen that had managed to get to a corner of her mouth when she first took his cum-glazed dick in. Tali noted how James' fingers had taken over the job his tongue had ceased doing and were now entering and leaving her hole with soft squelching noises that excited her in some primal way "I want you down there, I want your cum sliding down my dirty gullet, you've addicted me to you, James Shepard, and you are NOT getting away from it!" She could feel her inner walls humming as he kept fingering her expertly, and how his dick was throbbing with her dirty talk. It gave her a sense of power, not that she didn't already have enough. _Oh Keelah… he really is corrupting me… and I'm thoroughly enjoying it… maybe that's why we fit together so well, I'm corrupting him too…_

James swallowed dryly at the hungry look in his lover's eyes "Well if that's what you want…"

It only took a few swallowing motions of her throat, locked around him, for James to cry out and spray more cum down Tali's esophagus before she pulled back to catch the rest of it in her mouth. She moved her cunt off his face, leaving it with a distinct glazed donut appearance, except glazed donuts did not typically do their best to lick themselves clean. The look she gave him as she swished his seed around for flavour had a definite vixen-y quality to it before she swallowed it, shuddering ever so erotically and moaning at the taste and feel of it sliding down into her gullet. She leant in, wrapping her arms languidly around her lover and leaning in close, bringing her lips close to his ear and rubbing her still-hard nipples against his chest teasingly "So yummy…" She whispered, knowing it would arouse him even further and looking forward to the result.

James Shepard did not disappoint, slapping her butt hard, making her yelp a little, before he grabbed her rear and kneaded it as he kissed her hungrily. "Tali, do you want to play a game?" He asked once he pulled away.

"What sort of game?" Tali asked, interested, still rubbing herself along his shaft, slicking it up again.

James bit his lip and shivered as she glazed his dick over with her natural lubricant, it seemed he'd unleashed quite a sexual appetite on Tali from Day One… "Uh… I was thinking that since you like to dominate most of the time… I could take the lead this time around?"

Tali smiled, her eyelids drooping seductively, though it WAS the same smile she usually used when hosing down a field of enemies with Purifying Flame… "Sure, might even be exciting, I'm guessing you want to play dominant and screw me like a whore?"

"Well, not quite, I don't believe in abuse or anything…"

"Don't worry, James, you can call me anything, I know it's just for fun… remember something though…"

James cut her off with something that came from his mouth before he could think about it "I'm your man, your sexual slave, and I'd never look at another woman in a sexual light for the rest of my life."

Tali frowned, sure, James's words had sent shivers down her spine and made her literally start dripping on him. She always secreted a lot of juice when he was with her physically, as if in readiness for his large size to fit into her, a perfectly snug fit as if they'd been made for one another. _With recent revelations, we probably are made for one another, but…_ "How did you know that was what I wanted you to say?"

James frowned too "I don't know, Tali, it just… popped out from nowhere…"

Tali's frown faded "You're being honest, James… I guess that's just a benefit of having been together for many lifetimes before this, bodies, hearts, minds… all matched up, except what Crystal said about the Game… That makes it not so much a match made in heaven… still, we should treasure the time we have, just in case… Liara's past life's sacrifice was not enough to hold back the Game."

James smiled lazily, wrapping her up in his warm, strong arms. "Don't worry about it baby, we'll be fine, this time around, we'll win."

Tali sighed against his chest before moving herself up to settle fully in his lap, stroking his cheeks with her three-fingered hands "You always could make me feel safe…" She kissed him again, squashing her breasts against his chest before giggling at the feeling of his hot length against her abdomen "and wet, of course." She purred, getting up before turning and getting on her hands and knees "Now that we've gotten being melancholy out of the way, my hungry little cunt is drooling, are you up to feeding it some nice meat? Remember, I' your sex toy, I need to be used, pounded, screaming into the bed, wall, or whatever surface you decide to use me on." She felt dirty talking like that, but for some reason it only made her wetter and want his dick inside her even more.

James frowned "Tali, don't talk like that." He couldn't lie though, it was enticing watching his beautiful girlfriend begging for him to take her mercilessly like that, but it wasn't right…

Tali sighed, going back to a more normal tone instead of the pleading she had used before "Come on, James, we both know that we own each other, why shouldn't we have some fun about it? I want to try this… it feels dirty and vile, yes, but for some reason it turns me on… just like you acting submissive turns me on."

James looked at his girlfriend in a new light, slumping back against the headboard "What have I done… I've turned you into a nymphomaniac…"

Tali pouted, fingering herself with both her fingers while thumbing her clit, still keeping her large, perfect bubble butt stuck high in the air, ready for James to take her when he felt like it "Now there's no reason to say that… if I was a nymphomaniac I wouldn't only be like this with you… I think it's just that this break we took from you being in me triggered memories of periods of separation in the past. In the past, when we were separated, it would often be forever, I think it's just my subconscious acting up and wanting to be with you in any way, shape or form I can. Don't you feel it too?"

"Well, not the way you're feeling it, not quite." James said slowly, watching Tali change hands, licking her own lubricant off the currently unused hand, holding herself up with just her elbow. "I'm more inclined toward treasuring our time, be more sensual, if you get what I mean."

"We have plenty of time to explore our options, James. Now get over here and shove that man meat into my little twat, it's hungry and wants to something nice and big, the juicy part is good too."

James finally moved into position behind her, and moved her hand aside roughly before stopping and looking her in the eyes, leaning over as he held her hips "You sure about this?"

"Absolutely, sensuality can wait till morning, I haven't had enough to make up for those days off you got yet. Get working boy!" The sudden glint of her silver irises meant that she wasn't serious in the ruder aspect of what she'd been saying.

She yelped in pleasure as he rammed all the way into her slit, which fit him like a hot glove as if custom-made for his dick (or vice versa). He growled, low and dangerous, next to her pointed ears "No, my little slut, YOU get to work, start squeezing me with your little pussy now, or I'll rape you until you've been screwed senseless." He bit down lightly on the tip of her ear, careful not to pass her pain threshold. As soon as he let go, still brutally pounding her dripping orifice with his cock, he whispered "How's this, Tali?"

Tali was enjoying it a lot, the feeling that she could let go of control and still get the time of her life. James was usually quite skilled at pleasuring her in whatever pose they chose to make love in, but when he took the lead he took extra care to hit as many of her pleasure centers as he could physically possibly pull off on every single thrust. James had told her that the feeling of being used as a sex toy was quite pleasurable when she was the one doing it. For some reason, she had a similar feeling when he was exacting as much pleasure as he could from her body and giving her more than enough in turn to compensate "So good… yes… I should let you take the lead more often… Deeper, James, I want to feel your huge dick in my womb! Make me your cum dump James! Pour it all in me and fill me until I burst! Rape me to your heart's content!" The words that rolled off Tali's tongue surprised even herself as he ploughed her at a furious pace from behind, hands wrapped around her shoulders and roughly kneading her breasts. It was pleasure that almost verged on pain, but the very slight pain she felt was entirely of the good variety.

"Does this feel good Tali? Does knowing that you're my little sex toy to use whenever I want make you feel good?" James asked, a soft undertone to his words reassuring Tali that this was all just fun and games.

Tali moaned as he hit her g-spot on every thrust in and met up against her cervix firmly, firing off nerves throughout her body, making it almost hum with the decadent pleasure of being fucked raw. Her vagina began to spasm, signalling the beginning of her climax. She felt her partner slow down to accommodate for her body, and she was grateful for it, but there was one thing… After she finished spraying her juices out from around James' dick, she managed to get out, shuddering, the comment that "That was great, James, but you need to get into it more, like how sometimes I completely pin you down and basically rape you." She gasped out, before feeling a slap land on her ass before he yanked his cock out. She felt empty all of a sudden, as if her insides were begging for meat… his meat. "James!" She was surprised when he turned her over onto her back (she didn't resist) and pinned her arms, glaring at her with smouldering (circuits) eyes and circuits pulsing "James?" She asked timidly.

"Now, my little Tali… wait, you aren't so little considering how much of a sex addict you are, and how nice your body is," His eyes roved over her skin in a way that made it feel as if it was on fire. Anyone else, and she would have executed them for it, James Shepard, on the other hand, was welcomed with a pleading whimper. "You need to learn a lesson, you used me quite a few times in the past, it's time that I used you as a little fuck doll that I can manhandle." He pushed her legs open, as she'd been trying to get some friction. "You're just addicted to my cum, aren't you, bitch?"

Tali smiled, knowing James was finally beginning to enjoy it as much as she enjoyed dominating him, as was a frequent occurrence in their romance. "Yes, yes I am! Cum in me, Master, I need it! Please! I'm so hungry for your delicious cum that I would die if you don't ram my hungry little pussy with your big hard dick right the fuck now!"

"You want me in your pussy, you whore? Well be careful for what you wish for, Tali'Zorah, because you might just get it." He pulled her legs up, before leaning in and whispering "How far up can you put your legs Tali?"

"You want my legs out of your way Master?" She asked in response, blinking at him in false innocence clouded by lust. "I can bend my feet all the way up by my head, Master, I'm very flexible, you see?" She did just that, bending her back just enough so that her feet rested on either side of her head.

James frowned "Doesn't that hurt?"

"No, thanks for worrying James but you'd better keep going, or my little slit's going to get cold and lonely without you in it."

"Hmm, it is lonely indeed…" He slapped her puffy, well-used, drenched nether lips once, bringing a sharp gasp from her. "Let's see how it likes this company." He teased her thoroughly wet slit with his penis, running the tip of his organ against the puffy folds and grinning.

"Please, Master, I need your cock, take me however you wish but please, TAKE ME!" Tali pleaded, even though she was enjoying the teasing.

James slid in smoothly and filled her to the brim before pulling back and slamming back in again over and over, brining pleasured moans, groans and grunts from him and yelps, squelches and other noises from her. "Yes my little slut, you like that don't you? I can feel your excitement, it's running down your legs, into your ass…"

"I cleaned that too, Master, just for you!" Tali's eyes were rolled back slightly as she kept on getting her brains screwed out.

James teased her rosebud with a finger before it relaxed and he pushed in easily, feeling that it was indeed cleaned on the inside "Oh really? You're a filthy girl, you know that? Want me to take you up the ass, you really are addicted to my dick. You'll never serve another man like this, only I get to use your body, to bang you senseless like this. You're my little toy, mine alone."

"Yes, Master, I'm your slave, and I'm so addicted to your wonderful cock I'd just DIE without it!" Maybe she'd gone a bit far, but that sort of role-play language just felt appropriate for such an occasion when for once James was taking charge. "Keep going, James, keep going…"

James pulled out to a moan of disappointment just before he rolled her over onto her belly, butterfly-spreading her legs. Then he positioned himself over her and began to apply pressure to her anus, the sphincter of muscles barely able to relax enough to let him into her back door, "I'm not letting you cum so easily, Tali, you wanted me to play dominance games, fine, let's play…" He leaned in closer to her ears as he started slowly fucking her ass "How's this?"

"Godly, feels so dirty… so good…" Tali answered before going back to her role "Yes, Master, that's all my holes tonight! Keep marking me! Cum inside me, spray my bowels! You're going to make me cum if you keep this up!"

"I'm close too, you're enjoying me violating your ass aren't you?" James asked.

"Yes, yes!" Tali replied, bringing her knees up to either side of her body, still flat on the bed "It makes you feel even bigger than you are! Tear me in half, James! Keep doing my ass!"

"Shut it, whore, toys don't get to order their masters." She glanced back at him fearfully at the cold tone, but the warm wink he gave her assuaged her sudden irrational fear. This was James, he'd never hurt her, and she'd basically suggested this game in the first place, as he had only wanted to get more of a say of where they should do it and how. "Now get ready to receive my cum you little dumpster!" He rolled both of them over after shoving Tali's legs back in line with her body, so that now he was ravishing her while both looked up at the ceiling.

Tali's moans only grew more frequent and her shuddering more violent as James Shepard rammed hilt-deep into her ass one last time and shot gouts of hot white goo into her guts, bringing her an almost explosive orgasm. "Yes Master! Keep shooting your cum in me! Use me! Fill me until I explode! Rip me to pieces!"

"You really enjoyed that, didn't you, Tali?" James asked, removing himself from her still trembling body and laying her down to rest.

"Yeah, you're a smart, nice, beautiful, strong Alpha Male, I always wondered what it would be like if you tried to be more assertive during sex. I guess I know now." Tali grumbled sleepily once she caught her breath.

He smiled and shook his head in good humour at her statement before kissing her tenderly "I love you Tali'Zorah." He murmured softly as he pulled away, pushing a little against her pointed, swept-back, elfin ear with his nose as he buried it in her hair. The way he had his arms wrapped around her body, which was now resting atop him, was remarkably akin to a hapless koala bear trapped by a falling tree, but that was another matter…

She hummed approval before wrapping her limbs around him too. "I love you too James Shepard." She mumbled into his shoulder as she began drifting off to sleep. She would be sore the next morning… but that wouldn't stop her from jumping him again and, the next night, demanding he give her more rough treatment. Well, okay, so she might have pressured him into it, but the delicious pressure that was put on her insides by him and his seed was more than worth it, in her opinion. As for James, he just wanted to please her as much as he could, if it pleasured him at the same time, then so be it.

* * *

><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 19, 3872<em>

"Aren't they just so cute together?" Crystal commented happily "And it's all thanks to you, Liara."

No one except Crystal could hear the other voice, the other spirit fragment inside the crystal, the fragment that made Crystal be able to count herself as a sentient instead of a collection of memories, the one that had linked a data packet together into an individual. It wasn't a split personality… per se, though it was similar enough. "Don't call me Liara, Liara, for we all know we have always borne that name…"

"True, Legendary Commander, but don't you think it's so cute that they're treasuring their time more than before?"

"Yes, in its own way… it is cute. However, they don't really need to, after all, my Ultimate Wish, well, the original me's Ultimate Wish, will keep holding from what I can tell, they'll have plenty of time, not like most previous Tali versions did, one in particular, she was… cold… toward James for a while. Once they got together she was VERY receptive to sex, though whenever she was nearing or done her mating season, James would generally need to rest for a few days ahead of time and a few days after. She felt a bit sorry for him and the way she would use him like a sex-crazed animal… which she basically was during her mating seasons, so she offered to have him treat her like this version of James treated Tali just now. James didn't abuse the privilege and only 'dominated' her for the same number of days per year that she dominated him, though that meant effectively a month per year, spread apart in terms of days, Tali enjoyed it immensely and often asked for more, James didn't like it quite as much but he was willing to do what she wanted. Still, I found it funny how cold she had once been toward that version of James…"

"No she wasn't, the data says… oh, I see what you did there, funny… me. Anyhow, I think Tali's finally outgrowing her shyness and starting to regain some of the persona I last saw her with, blazing into battle, buying time for us to pull back to the Ark and fire the Halos. She was an unstoppable force, always got what she wanted… except for the fact that she had to fall in love with an immovable object. Tali first heard about letting go of control and doing the Objectification Routine from some of her subordinates, but in the little time they had together between missions James wanted to keep his morals. That was the only thing she found a bit of a let-down about their life together, everything else was great."

"I didn't see that part of the past in as much detail as what you're describing, but if you're telling the truth, James Shepard was an idiot, having a gorgeous girlfriend who wants to experiment and not agreeing to her advances… it's nice to see he's changed a bit though."

Crystal nodded "Indeed, and it's good that they've got a lot more time for one another, though the fact that that past life had any time for one another was because the Flood didn't blitz us nearly as fast as ACU warfare can pull off, even Zerg can spread faster if they put work into it, right, me?"

There was a pause from the other part of herself "Yes, after all, Flood are weakened Zerg, well, back then they were likely stronger but the Zerg have evolved far faster… And of course, I think we're crazy, talking to ourselves like this."

Crystal paused and thought for only an instant before sending back "Agreed."

"Let's stop talking to ourselves… think like one instead of almost like split personalities" the Legendary Commander's fragment that constituted the entity known as Crystal suggested.

Crystal agreed "Yeah, that sounds about right…"

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, Halo Ruins, January 20, 3872<em>

"There was only one ship." Thel Vadamee stated evenly, trying to keep the fury out of his voice. How DARE these incompetents—he would not call them tacticians of any sort—order him around in the field as if they knew better? He could have won the Battle of Reach, hell, Rtas or Orna could have done the same, but NOOO they just had to pull Rtas off the line on some spec ops mission, though with the Parasite and the _Infinite Succour_… Maybe it was a good thing after all.

Regret's hologram's jaw nearly hit the floor "One? Are you sure?" His right eye was twitching disturbingly. Thel almost wanted to laugh his ass off at the near-comical psychopathic twitch, but for how many needless Covenant deaths that idiot had caused… for that, he wanted to kill the fool.

He held the killing urge in though, this room had too many fanatics in it. "Yes, they called it the _Pillar of Autumn_." A fresh wave of mutterings ran through the Councillors. He felt sorry for most of them, even some of the Prophets, who he'd befriended, most were decent people, merely misled into believing that the Hierarchs knew best when in all reality they did NOT.

"Why was it not destroyed like most of the rest of their fleet?" Mercy, in Thel's opinion a complete misnomer, asked. "We did order you to pursue and destroy it, did we not?"

"If this information the human Division Commander Hannah Shepard sent me in gloating was true, it was of their newest capital ship class, a Heavy Destroyer, and one specially modified with heavier shielding, plating and weaponry than normal. The CCS groups near Halo didn't stand a chance against it, though they damaged it. They set down upon Halo and we were not permitted to fire upon it with our heavy anti-ship weaponry."

"But you did, Supreme Commander, you violated orders." Mercy pressed.

"A few holes in the structure is better than to allow the Sacred Ring to fall into Coalition hands, who knows what they might have done to it with their filthy paws?" The Councillors murmured some more at that, though most seemed to agree. Thel on the other hand was thinking: _They probably would have handled the thing much better than you three madmen ever could have_.

Regret changed the topic to draw support away from the Supreme Commander "When you first saw Halo, were you blinded by its majesty?"

Thel Vadamee was inclined to throttle the hologram… if only that were possible, otherwise, he would want to laugh his ass off, but it would be unseemly. "Blinded?" He asked sceptically.

"Paralyzed? Dumbstruck?"

"No." Thel deadpanned, wondering if the Prophet was worthy of any position of authority if he was going to be so dazzled he couldn't think tactically. "It was more important to engage the Pillar of Autumn in combat than to admire the beauty of the Ring."

"Yet the humans were able to evade your ships, land on the Sacred Ring, and desecrate it with their filthy footsteps!" Regret continued, Thel almost growled, _now that his first ploy t discredit me fails he tries THIS?_

Since Thel knew that if the Council opposed it in sufficient numbers the Hierarchs would need to back down, he went for that. "Noble Hierarchs, you yourselves forbade me from deployment of Plasma Projectors against the _Pillar of Autumn_ and that was why they could land on the Ring! And after the Parasite attacked…"

The Council members were buzzing angrily by now. Mercy banged his fist on his chair "There will be order in this Council!" That was to no avail.

Ruth moved forward and raised his hand, the room slowly simmered down before he began "You were right to focus your attention on the Flood, but this Demon, this 'John Shepard', son of that evil female, Hannah Shepard…"

"Halo was activating and we had backed away to allow its guns to strike freely at the intruders. By the time I learnt of the Demon and his mother's intent, there was nothing I could do." Some Prophet Councillors were shocked by the revelation that the fleet had backed away and not assisted the Sacred Ring in destroying the Coalition ship, and started standing and yelling angrily at Thel. _Oops… that was a slip-up, still looks like quite a few are on my side though… stop chuckling you fat lazy brute!_

Regret's hologram leant toward Truth "Noble Prophet of Truth, this has gone on long enough. Make an example of this bungler. The Council demands it." Well, they weren't quite protesting right now…

"You are one of our most treasured instruments. Long have you led your fleet with honour and distinction. But your inability to safeguard Halo… was a colossal failure." Truth said.

"Nay, it was heresy!" A Prophet Councillor shouted from the stands just before he sat back down. Thel wanted to snicker at that, the male hadn't SAT per se, he'd been knocked down by two of his fellow Councillors, both Prophets, via a quick double punch to the back of the knees and a haymaker to the back of the head. Sniggers went around that area as the guy "settled" in his seat, knocked out.

"I will continue my campaign against the humans!" Thel announced to the Council, which hummed with approval, since he was one of the few commanders who regularly won victories at relatively affordable costs.

"No! You will not!" Truth called, silencing the crowd in shock at that. "Remove him from this chamber, he will be punished as a heretic should be!" Two Brutes tried to grab Vadamee before he shook them off and stalked out of the room, the two idiots following. From the thunderous debating (and breaking of more than a few objects i.e. chairs over helmets and bodies alike) in the room, he knew there was a good chance he'd get pardoned… Truth decided to be even more annoying though "Soon the Great Journey shall begin. But when it does, the weight of your heresy will stay your feet, and you shall be left behind."

Thel Vadamee snorted, unheard among the chaos in the Council Hall, as he left through the door.

* * *

><p><em>Press Conference, Earth HQ, January 22, 3872<em>

"We are not wasting a single UEF ship to confirm what we've seen a dozen times before on a dozen different colonies. Reach is gone, everything on it is blasted to bits, burned, glassed over, and vaporized. Everyone on Reach is dead, Dead, DEAD." James Ackerson's voice drifted over the Elite Four's comm. channels.

"You really had this defeatist for your assistant Hackett?" Ariel asked as they closed distance under active camo and passive stealth, well, in Hannah's case, cloaking and active stealth, but that was beside the point.

"Apparently that was a mistake… he'll be fired soon enough, the Coalition doesn't need staff like him." The Supreme UEF Commander scowled.

Ackerson was about to run from all the stuff being hurled at him when he came face to face with not one, not two, not three, but all FOUR of the Elite Four's Armoured Command Units towering over him, their guns pointed threateningly down at him "Hello Ackerson, what is this we hear about Reach being gone?" Seth-Thauum growled threateningly.

"Everyone on Reach is indeed dead, but it hasn't been glassed yet, since everyone who died there was COVENANT." Hannah stated rather lightly, almost as if she was admiring cute fluffy kittens even while Ackerson started down the barrel of her Heavy Microwave Laser and Molecular Ripper.

The man gulped audibly "I can explain…"

Hannah's ACU crouched and stared at him, red unfeeling eye lights boring into him "Please do."

* * *

><p><em>Cairo Station, High Orbit over Earth, January 22, 3872<em>

The crew, including Urz, whose hand was long since completely regenerated, were out for a walk along one of the observation windows of one of the most destructive things known to exist in large numbers (unlike Halo or Black Sun). Liara had been escorted back to the Hagalaz, and more upgrades had been applied to that ship, before they had come back to Earth. Still, right now she'd managed to with extreme efficiency clear most of the paperwork and was present in Avatar form looking at the view.

"Earth…" Jacob commented. "Haven't seen it in years… back when I first heard of the thing, the Orbital Defence Grid was all politics. Now look! The Cairo is just one of three HUNDRED Orbital Strategic Missile Stations… three YO silos on each one, always stocked with one missile per silo in non-combat conditions… With Hackett or Hall coordinating the guns, NOTHING is getting past us in one piece. Ships have been arriving all morning though, so I'm guessing something BIG will be happening soon."

"It's almost time for the ceremony celebrating the Battle of Reach and First Battle of Halo." James noted "Come on guys, time to get down there, keep the armour, just take off the helmets, keep shields and everything up, we've got no clue what might happen next…"

"I think he's referring to screaming fan-girl horde syndrome." John stated dryly.

The sudden appearance of a flamethrower in a certain pair of three-fingered hands and a frown on the face of a certain Asari's avatar did not go unnoticed. "We'll keep you safe." Liara said, wrapping her arms around John possessively. Tali was simply holding up her flamethrower to make her point clear.

"Correction: James Shepard-Commander is referring to the dying screams of said horde of fan-girls." Legion stated.

"Result does seem statistically probable…" Mordin added.

* * *

><p>"What's the status of things, EDI?" Hackett asked the AI as the celebratory parade continued with reporters hurling questions to the ground crew who were responding with "no comment".<p>

"Another brief skirmish sir, near Io, the Covenant recon ships have been beaten back by our battle groups in Slipspace."

"Good, it's about time we finally closed the pincers on them and made a stand that they'll commit to. Is it confirmed that there's a Forerunner installation under East Africa?"

"I built that place, I would think I could remember where it was." Crystal's image, still stunningly (in Hackett's opinion) similar to Liara's, popped up next to EDI's hologram. "I recommend using it as the bait for this exchange. There is no classified data there, at least, nothing we can access without borrowing the Covenant's most religious artefact… John will know it when he sees it."

Hackett frowned at the lack of info from the Crystal, but it had helped take out a large Covenant battle fleet, and was the best bait they got for bleeding the Covenant dry this time "Alright, as soon as this thing is over, we'll be ready for dealing with the Covenant when they come…"

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, Halo Ruins, January 23, 3872<em>

Thel Vadamee could hardly believe they'd decided to judge him a Heretic after all. Well, okay, he could believe it if those politicians were really THAT stupid, but he thought he had enough friends in the Council, Sangheili AND San'Shyuum, and enough previous victories to smooth over this particular incident, but if those fools twisted things the right way… it almost made sense as he was led into the stadium and his arms were fixed in floating cuffs. "Heh, seems someone's REALLY eager to lose this war." He growled, after all, he had to maintain the Fleet of Particular Justice's reputation as relative cynics (the Retribution Detachment was the most cynical, but the rest of the fleet wasn't that far behind).

"You've drawn quite a crowd." The Brute Chieftain watching him commented.

Thel snorted "If they've come to hear me beg, they will be disappointed."

The foul Jiralhanae grinned, showing his teeth and breathing his rank breath into Thel's face "Are you sure?"

Painful energy coursed through the cuffs and Thel Vadamee's body much to his irritation. Still, he only grinned at Tartarus. The rate they were going, the Covenant would lose the war in short order, after all, they were beginning to run low on reservists and needed to draw more on fresh trainees. Even though there were still plenty of ships left over from the Unggoy Rebellions, upgrading those were taking and would take huge bites out of the economy. Taking himself—and it wasn't arrogance that had him believe himself to be one of the best Covenant commanders, merely statistics—out of the equation was NOT wise at this point in the war. He chuckled morbidly even while pain coursed through his body, they had no idea what they were doing to themselves by putting him up as a scapegoat for Halo…

They started applying the cutting beams, set to a very low power to cause pain but not to kill. It stung, but Thel could take it. "This one not only allowed the Coalition to set foot upon and defile a Sacred Ring, he failed to defend it from destruction!" Tartarus shouted to the megaphone he held, the crowds roared in response to the misinformation. _Huh, smarter than your average Brute, I'll give him that… interesting the Coalition had such an accurate name._ Thel thought even while he felt his armour's surface begin to char with the beams and his skin heating and blistering "There can be no greater heresy! Let him be an example for all who would break our Covenant!" Tartarus kept yelling.

Then the filthy Jiralhanae motioned two more of his kind forward and they started removing Thel Vadamee's armour from him, it was a relief to feel the cool air on his skin, much better than before… _Damn, right, the branding, I almost forgot that part of the procedure… Come on, vile ape, do your worst._ His mind remarked dryly as Tartarus came around him with the brand bearing the Mark of Shame, he smirked, then gritted his teeth as Tartarus stabbed the brand against his chest, the hot metal searing the skin and the smell and feel of roasting meat reaching both their noses as they glared each other, teeth gritted at zero distance. Thel suddenly thought of something, if he was supposed to die here anyways, then why not use one of the skills he'd picked up randomly in his childhood? Okay, so he wouldn't exhaust ALL his ammunition, but this would be entertaining…

His mandibles opened widely and Tartarus sniggered, expecting a scream, as a gurgling came from the throat of the Sangheili he was gleefully torturing. That was right before a rather large dollop of projectile vomit splashed directly into his face, splattering ing his eyes with the highly acidic concoction, an ample amount going up his nose and some even going into his mouth. He immediately dropped the brand and clawed ferociously at the water canteen he had before falling flat upon the platform and pouring it onto his eyes trying to clean away the burning sensation. "You, YOU!" He spluttered, spitting and nearly vomiting himself. "Were it not for the Prophets' orders," And the fact that he could barely see straight at the moment "I would tear you limb from limb!" He roared in fury, though this was not enough to drown out the uproarious laughter in the background. Not even a glare could completely silence his subordinates, the other Jiralhanae in the area.

"Sorry, your breath was a bit too rank for me to stomach, the Parasite smelled more pleasant." Thel grinned despite the pain threatening to overwhelm him from his chest wound, bringing more laughter from the crowd before the Brutes dragged him off.

"Bullshit, you just couldn't stand the pain, pathetic, weak being." Tartarus snarled, kicking Thel painfully in the balls before they left the stadium. That was the real difficult thing to not scream from…

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, Halo Ruins, January 23, 3872<em>

"How much further must we heft this baggage? Any cell will do." One Brute commented.

"Why not toss him in with this lot?" The other one holding Thel up suggested as they passed a cell with three Kig-Yar aka Jackals inside. Thel grinned secretly, he could use the food after coughing up about a third of his stomach contents in Tartarus' face. "They could use the meat." _You mean_ I _can use the meat…_ He thought.

"Them? What about _us_? My belly aches, and his flesh is seared, just the way I like it." _Heh, even Unggoy have more honour than you dumb Brutes…_ Thel thought. _In fact, Unggoy, Sangheili and Mgalekgolo are the only ones I have confirmed will never resort to cannibalism, not even sure about the San-Shyuum… Maybe we ought to all be of higher status than you barbarians? Hell, HUMANS are of higher status, Seraphim too, if we judge by that. Those guys I can respect, with their technology and stuff, you? Not so much…_

"Quiet!" Tartarus barked, still in a lousy temper after rinsing his eyes and face for over ten minutes. "You two whimper like Unggoy fresh off the teat. He's not meant for the jails. The Hierarchs have something special in mind."

_Oh? That sounds interesting, gives me a chance to gloat when we start actually losing the damned war, at the rate we're going, with the_ Fleet of Particular Justice_, the most elite fleet in the field, nearly destroyed thanks to you idiots sending an incompetent to take over from Rtas, that day will come soon. _Thel thought, his brows rising and mandibles spreading in surprise as they exited the passage onto a platform overlooking the Mausoleum of the Arbiter. _I might be able to realize what the humans or Seraphim are trying to pull far better than any other current field commander and typically head them off, unless it's Hannah Shepard, but I did NOT see THIS coming… _He thought as they dragged him past dozens of Honour Guards standing at attention, their energy staves at the ready. Thel almost wanted to snort at the sight. _If a Coalition Marine contingent gets onto the station they won't be able to do jack shit, the only place we have a good chance of winning in is space, Fuel Rod Cannons would be more appropriate armament for the Honour Guards right now…_ They finally dragged him into the Mausoleum where Truth and Mercy were waiting. Tartarus and the other Brutes bowed to them.

"Noble Prophets of Truth and Mercy, I have brought the incompetent." The Jiralhanae said. _Wow, Brute, I'm surprised you can do more than grunt, then again, the fact that you're calling ME incompetent says volumes about your intelligence level._ Thel thought sarcastically, fitting considering his and his former Fleet's reputation, especially the Retribution Detachment, which had been sent to investigate and later cleanse the _Infinite Succour_ of the Parasite.

"You may leave, Tartarus." Truth stated in his irritating voice.

Tartarus looked up, shocked "But… I thought…" Thel rolled his eyes, did Tartarus know what this place was or why Thel would have been brought here? Obviously not…

"And take your Jiralhanae with you." Truth continued.

Tartarus actually hesitated before bowing again "Release the prisoner." He growled to the other Brutes. They pushed Thel to his knees and let go, leaving the Mausoleum.

Vadamee touched the still-stinging Mark of Shame on his chest, frowning, but did not look up, it would be impolite, and with his current situation, that was not a good proposition. Truth began speaking evenly "The Council decided to have you hung by your entrails and your corpse paraded through the city. But ultimately, the terms of your execution are up to me."

Vadamee grimaced, suppressing a snort. The Council had decided no such thing if the info he'd gotten from the prison guards was correct, about forty percent called for his execution while sixty percent wanted to give him another chance. The Hierarchs had apparently tipped the deal. Still, he had to play nice, at least for the moment, cynics did not live long when weapon-less and surrounded by armed warriors. "I am already dead."

Truth hummed approvingly "Indeed. Do you know where we are?"

"The Mausoleum of the Arbiter." Thel replied simply.

"Quite so, here rests the vanguard of the Great Journey. Every Arbiter, from first to last. Each one created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis." Truth continued. _Yeah right, a hundred and eighty two caskets, there were not nearly a fifth that number of Arbiters, you are misnamed, Hierarch._ Thel thought.

"The Taming of the Mgalekgolo, the Unggoy Rebellions, were it not for the Arbiters, the Covenant would have broken long ago!" The Prophet of Mercy spoke for the first time.

"Even on my knees, I do not belong in their presence." Tehl answered. _Indeed, I belong in the presence of where the Arbiters would study their arts BEFORE the Sangheili-San'Shyuum War, the Arbiter Tribunals rumoured to have been left by the Forerunners but which you levelled during the war._ In reality, those had been left by a particular group of allies to the Forerunners, but no one in the Covenant knew that, after all, the Protoss took many millennia to regain the level of technology to create warships similar to the original Arbiters, and then they modelled their new Arbiter Tribunals upon the old ones they fielded during the Forerunner-Flood War and Aeon of Strife.

"Halo's destruction was your error, and you rightly bear the blame. But the Council was… overzealous. We know you are no heretic. _This_ is the true face of heresy, one who would subvert our faith and incite rebellion against the High Council." Truth said, pressing a button on his chair. A miniature hologram of a Sangheili with abnormal equipment showed up, the matte black chest piece, dark blue leg pieces and white/silver arm pieces looked too familiar… Apparently this guy had taken to Coalition plating, but that would mean…

Thel suddenly realized why the Arbiters were sent on suicide missions to regain "honour", of course, personally he didn't believe in it, only put up the pretence, as he told his troops, the greatest honour is to come home alive and safe. Still, this sort of thing was an easy way to get rid of people and try to get a job done at the same time. "Our Prophets are false! Open your eyes, my brothers! They would use the faith of our forefathers to bring ruin to us all! The Great Journey is a—" Truth cut off the hologram at that for what were to Thel obvious reasons.

"This heretic, and those who follow him, must be silenced." Truth stated the obvious.

"Their slander offends all who walk the Path!" Mercy did the same.

"What use am I? I can no longer command ships, lead troops into battle…" _Your loss buddies…_

Truth hummed again "Not as you are, no. But become the Arbiter...and you shall be set loose against this heresy with our blessing."

The Prophet started hitting buttons and a pod floated into the center of the room, opening it to reveal a suit of armour, far behind the newest gear but perhaps designed just for that. Thel wondered vaguely if the Prophets really expected him to go up against the Heretics in this if they had Coalition support and most likely some Coalition weapons too. "What of the Council?" He stalled for now, mulling it over.

"The tasks you must undertake as the Arbiter are perilous, suicidal. You will die, as each Arbiter has before you. The Council _will_ have their corpse." Mercy replied, sounding every bit the fool he was.

Thel got up and walked toward the armour, which he knew to be a different one for each Arbiter. Even without size differences, many Arbiters died in battle and their bodies were not recovered, ergo the legend that the armour was of every Arbiter was obviously a farce by the Prophets. _Whoa, Thel, cynicism is fine but that's best kept un-thought… for now._ He reminded himself before placing the helmet on his head and turning "What would you have your Arbiter do?" He asked simply. _I hope it involves kicking some Brute and Prophet ass before taking care of those Heretics…_

* * *

><p>AN: Yes the _Fleet of Particular Justice_ had a reputation for cynicism but it was also the best unit within the Covenant, though troops sent to it are usually originally considered rejects and failures.

**I'm asking this really early, possibly over a year before I really need it:** I need two name suggestions for twin girls. I will take my favourite ones or more likely pairs and put them up as a poll on my profile. It's for **John and Liara's first two kids**. Also would be nice if I could get a name suggestion for **Tali and James' first child** (be it boy or girl).

For a story based on one of the crew's past lives, I have the following (TENTATIVE) titles for the four discrete story arcs. The fourth could be merged into part of the third. Each story arc starts with and ends with a major character death or multiple deaths.

One: No Ordinary Genes

Two: Till Death Do Us Part

Three: Fall of Legends

Four: The Final Legend

For another Past Life story (this is set in a different universe but with the same set of souls), the story arcs are:

One: Start of the Scavengers

Two: The Third War

Three: The Fall of Man

This story MAY tie into THAT universe's version of Mass Effect. You'll be pleasantly surprised by just how much I can weave together.

What do you guys think? REVIEW!


	21. It's A Trap!

A/N: I will take S058's suggestion next chapter, at least a major continent getting glassed on a capital/core planet should do it.

For the record, I may seem to prefer the Cybrans, but that's because of their air fleet. Also, I prefer Cybrans for storyline purposes and of course because most of the main characters are Cybran.

Think about it: Cybran ships have the best torpedoes, they got best AA (esp. vs. Seraphim), and Mobile Land TMD (Loyalists). Aeon have bad Battleships (Tempests aren't that good, and Omens have poor range), though the Harbinger-Serenity-Asylum combo on land is deadly, and Ascendant (T2 Mobile Flak), Blaze (T2 Assault i.e. Hover Tank), Asylum (T2 Mobile Shield) form a tough combo of amphibious units. The only real aces I have when I play Aeon are Restorers, Solaces and Harbinger-Serenity, though Obsidian T2 Tanks are also quite good. Seraphim have at best poor AA, a smaller unit selection (No T3 Gunship, Boomer, 3 Experimentals only), and Othuums/Athanah/Iashavoh, though I really like Uashavohs and Yathsous. UEF are mostly anti-ground oriented and average in everything else. In conclusion, I don't really have a factional preference, but if pressed will usually choose Cybran, nothing beats a bunch of units thinking they've cornered your ACU only to get HML-ed to scrap.

* * *

><p>Chapter 21: It's A Trap!<p>

_Cairo Station, High Orbit over Earth, January 24, 3872_

"Slipspace ruptures directly outside our kill zone." EDI reported to Hannah who immediately transmitted it over to Hackett on the _Cairo_.

The ceremony's reporters immediately fell silent, though cameras were now all on Hackett "Show me." The Supreme UEF Commander stated bluntly.

The towering holo-pedestal in the middle of the briefing/conference room lit up and people moved out of the way for better viewing clarity as the holograms, not solid-light this time, showed Covenant warships exiting Slipspace, a lot of them "One hundred Covenant capital ships, all at least CCS Cruisers, plus a hundred Corvettes, holding positions at a distance they can shoot down most of our missiles from. HMLs don't have the sort of range to achieve maximum cutting power and would only help them fire back at us." She narrated for the benefit of the audience before zooming out to show several Enlightenment Groups moving toward the intruders.

A familiar beauty's face appeared on the screen "This is Grand Crusader Ariel Williams." She was after all the highest Aeon Commander frequently out in the field outside Aeon Space. Rhiza was only called on for very special missions that the Elite Four couldn't fit into their schedules, and the Avatar of War coordinated thousands of commanders across many, many planets. It was the same with Dostya's role, Hackett and Seth didn't do much different, but both went out just a little more often, in their absences, Rhiza coordinated UEF defences and Dostya Seraphim Republic defences. "We are engaging the enemy." Fusillades of missiles began trailing away from the Coalition warships' flanks and arcing forward toward the Covenant fleet as the ships slowly closed distance, well before anything else was in reliable, full-powered range. The Aeon Home Fleet warship designs used Serpentine Tactical Missiles instead of the more popular Loa TMs, because they offered greater power per hit and a zigzag course that made non-Coalition TMD quite inefficient against them. The trade-off balanced well against most enemies.

Hackett shook his head "Negative, Grand Crusader, keep standard defensive perimeters around the perimeter, mix back in with the standard defence force." The seventeen hundred warships the UEF Home Fleet had swollen to just for the highly anticipated Battle of Earth were distributed in groups among the battle stations that completely surrounded Earth now. "Hannah, I think it's time to get back to battle."

"Sure is, I'm already sending alerts out to everyone groundside, I've got a special trap near New Mombasa for the Covenant, you'll see in good time."

Hackett smirked "Great. Strategic Missile Stations, as soon as they come in range, open up, reporters and other non-military personnel, leave, NOW."

There were grumbles as the crowd cleared out and Hackett put his helmet back on "Something's not right, the fleet that hit Reach was fifteen times this size…" Hackett noted slowly.

"Sir! Additional Contacts! Boarding crafts, lots of them!" An officer reported on a channel directly to Hackett's helmet.

"They're going to try to take our stations offline, give their capital ships a straight shot at Earth… what do they have on those?"

EDI's visage replied instead, tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ear "Low megaton yield weapons, antimatter munitions, no matter, we can safety detonate a few on the station and it won't do shit."

Hackett kept smiling "Good to know, let them come, and then when they leave give them all the SIMs (Space Interception Missiles) and Flak they deserve. Reclaim the bombs but… let one go off on the Malta, we need to gauge their power. Evacuate the Malta crew as soon as the Covenant begins pulling out."

"Steven, are you sure?" Seth-Thauum asked from his link, also at Earth. Forays into Seraphim Republic Space had nearly ended after the First battle of Sanctuary…

"We have three hundred stations, a bit of damage to one is worth it for gauging the power of the Covenant's newest toys." Hackett answered simply. "John, your Marine crew will be critical to the defence of this station, because I'm going to channel them here, I know your crew's good, so I'm giving them more targets, good hunting."

"Yes sir!" John Shepard saluted before moving off after his crew, who were already heading for the lifts as the fire-teams they'd hammered out before. "Come on, Liara, Legion, let's move it!"

"Already proceeding, Shepard-Commander." The Geth called as he ran.

"_Malta_, what's your status?" John asked as they took the lift and the icons on the strategic display he'd drawn up showed the boarding craft approaching the central decks of the Malta, forward of the three massive missile launchers, all of which were pointed into space and were set close to the massive space-born Paragon equivalent.

"Stand by… they're latched on the airlocks like we wanted them to! They're in standard formation, little bastards up front, big ones in back, good luck, Commander Shepard."

John nodded to his helmet internal camera "Thanks, let's get moving…" There was a clang over the comms as an airlock ahead of one of the fire teams rang with the impact of a Covenant Boarding Craft latching on.

Jacob's voice came over the comm. from his squad's position "Garrus! We need field of fire on that airlock, as soon as that door opens, start punching through all of them!" Obviously that meant Garrus would be setting up his Tomcat Autogun for use in-line with the airlock. This floor of the station was the only one they were herding Covenant into, where the structural fields had been turned off, and it was sealed thoroughly against everything. Still, the rest of the station was ready for space combat operations.

"Great, now, there're our airlocks." The command crew had been assigned two airlocks that were in proximity to one another. The logic was simple: Liara could simply annihilate one crew while John and Legion, being Soldier and Infiltrator respectively, could muster quite heavy fields of fire on the other with normal assault weapons and thus wipe them out.

"Boarders in Habitat Alpha…" The Defence Coordinator started before pausing and continuing with "no more boarders there."

As soon as the two airlocks in the hangar bay they were in opened, the Covenant inside were met by a hail of laser, gauss and psionic fire. John Shepard was, as usual in situations demanding lots of small munitions, dual-wielding his Gauss LMG and LBR. Liara, on her end, was charging up some sort of blast. She hurled the glowing ball directly into the boarding umbilical, and there was a muffled explosion at the other end before it went slack, vacuum sucking air from inside the bay out just before the airlock slammed shut and the remaining umbilical was reclaimed by the engineering suites. Pieces, rather small pieces, of a Covenant Boarding Craft were seen floating past a holo-screen showing the outside (armour had been sealed up once general alert was raised) shortly after the guns in the room fell silent as threat boards were cleared.

"Requesting T'Soni Strike to second boarding craft, this platform believes it will be more efficient." Legion said after blinking a few times.

Liara shrugged "Alright, will do, now, time to try some of the other techniques I picked up from my past lives… like this ability one of them called Hyper Beam!" She opened her mouth, which seemed to form a sphere of energy, glowing yellow, somehow, she frowned as she focused the energy, not quite used to the new technique. Then she let rip, a gigantic beam of yellow energy erupting from the sphere in front of her mouth. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as the beam tore a hole straight through the Covenant Boarding Craft outside, secondary explosions tearing it apart after it was cored. The airlock snapped shut shortly thereafter, with the edges of the door noticeably singed just a little even with structural fields dispersing most of the energy.

"How the HELL did you learn to fire a Particle Cannon with your mouth?" John asked as he stared at the readings he got before his optics flew up to meet Liara's avatar's eyes.

The Asari that looked and acted entirely real shrugged, frowning "Well, that's what a Hyper Beam is, apparently, I don't know how it worked, but I can pull it off. Crystal says I began to physically assimilate toward one of my past lives after I bonded to you, that's how I could muster so much energy at a time. My energy storage tissues have been changing, according to her, it's just another aspect of becoming the, and I quote, 'Ultimate War Machine'." Liara rolled her eyes "Hey, look out the screen, they're leaving the _Malta_!"

John nodded "Alright, the bomb should go off any second now, and if projections are correct…" a bright white dot appeared on the side of the _Malta_ the Covenant had just left before growing into a large conical blast of light and energy. The _Malta_ was propelled sideways by the blast but other than that the station was relatively unscathed, though its structural fields read nearly one-half damage to them due to the blast being relatively internal. The station rotated itself so that more of the surviving Flak and Zealot batteries (some were destroyed as the blast was directed outward by the fields) could be brought to bear on the stunned but still fleeing escape craft. It was a massacre as Zealot Space Interception Missiles and Electron Flak rent the Covenant small-craft to tatters in short order.

"Security Station 4 is under attack, we are containing the threat." James reported over squad comms as he, Grunt, and Mirala moved in on their targets.

"Got it, James." John used his mind to change the comm. settings. "How's it going Admiral?"

"The Covenant are planning to plant a bomb on this station too, so far we've managed to ward off all the bomb-ships with pin-point Flak fire…" Hackett took one look at the deadpan face John was using and snorted "Okay, we've smeared their squadrons across the stars, alright? Still, they're trying, and they're tenacious, I'll give them that, I just wonder how long it'll take before they run out of patience and have their capital ships try charging past us."

"That's nice to know… talk later, Admiral."

"Alright, happy hunting, and listen for any new directions, Hackett out." The Supreme UEF Commander cut the channel at that.

"So, Liara, what's your new arsenal like?" John asked as he swung around a corner and came barrel to breathing mask with a Grunt who was almost immediately decapitated. "Should I worry about random electric discharges?" He had spent a while in sickbay after one such discharge had ruptured one side of his scrotum rather painfully (that's what woke him up), that was the morning they were supposed to drop Liara off on Hagalaz. Liara had refused to leave for her ship until John physically pushed her along the next morning.

Liara sped ahead and shook her "un-helmeted" avatar head as she passed by "No, I have those under control already… CHARGE BEAM!" One hallway of charred Covenant remains later… "See?"

"Uh… right, anything else?" John asked after blinking a few times.

"Well, I have been told I cannot entirely learn Future Sight or any of the really spectacular moves, but Crystal's teachings are opening a lot of doors to me, such as the fact that I now naturally have bio-electric fields, the equivalent to structural fields, and they're quite durable."

"In other news, I'm in love with a near-indestructible, beautiful, extremely smart living tank that could probably plough through a Zerg Brutalisk and come out laughing her ass off." John muttered.

Liara smirked and wrapped her arms around her lover "That sounds about right…"

* * *

><p>"Fire team to Sector 3 Zone 15!" The Defence Coordinator called out.<p>

Miranda's team, or the "Perfect Aeon" herself rather, reported in with "Reacting."

"We have intruders on the hull, but do NOT conduct EVA operations, Electron Flak will deal with them, I repeat, no EVA operations." Hackett called over the PA.

"I'm picking up ten Assault Carriers among the enemy ships in addition to fifty CCS Cruisers and thirty Carriers plus ten Battleships. All are the newest upgraded versions. They're entering the missile kill zone…" EDI warned.

"Fire the missiles in these stations!" Hackett barked, and a wave of Yolona Oss Missiles ripped out of the selected stations toward the enemy, three per station, in the order he'd waypoint-ed for said stations. "All other orbital defence stations engage with missile fire, Loa, Zealot, YO, whatever, fire at will!"

"Wait, Hackett, picking up… Slipspace jumps, they're jumping into Earth atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, and we haven't got any Jammers covering the oceans…" Hannah called from her ACU. "Be prepared to fire down toward Earth!"

"Everyone, fire all weapons at the Covenant warships! We will not let them harm Earth!" Hackett roared, as the PA announced the firing of weapons with sounds. The Covenant were doing their best to dodge, and were doing a spectacular job of shooting down the Yolona Oss missiles, but they were beginning to fail under the fire of everything else, though the rounds and beams were slightly deteriorated by the atmosphere. They quickly closed distance toward East Africa…

When only twenty Corvettes, three Assault Carriers and two Battleships remained (at the cost of over two hundred Coalition warships and various regular defence stations from Covenant counter-fire) Hackett received a call, "Let the Covenant land in New Mombasa, Hackett, I've got my own special brand of hell for them… actually, send John and his crew down, we'll teach them some more lessons on ground warfare, though probably not enough of them will live to give them an accurate report. That could be a problem." Hannah Shepard grinned viciously.

* * *

><p><em>Approaching New Mombasa, Earth, January 24, 3872<em>

As they rode the Gemini down into New Mombasa, EDI sent a transmission. "The message just repeats. Regret, regret, regret…"

Jedore snorted from where she was checking her LBR "Catchy. Any idea what it means?" She asked, looking over a convoy of Tier 2 tanks and Tier 3 units, with a few Light Assault Bots for urban warfare, were "thundering" i.e. gliding effectively silently over the landscape, only detected thanks to the advanced sensors of the Gemini. Of course, the IFF systems helped the sight-range sharing.

Jack snorted from where she was, in a neighbouring Gemini that was flying in formation with the Commander's own. The comm. carried her derisive expression over to everyone in the crew "Dear Humanity and/or Coalition, we regret being hostile bastards, we regret coming to Earth, and we most definitely regret that you just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!"

Crystal snorted from John's chest-plat pocket. He'd initially found her presence a bit unnerving, so similar to the Asari he loved to hold to himself but different, foreign, older, wiser. He supposed he'd get used to it once Liara hit Matriarch Stage, nine centuries down the road, if he lived long enough. She might have powers greater than any Asari but her instincts and impulses were still Maiden-stage. The thought of aging and dying, leaving her, stung him somehow on the inside, it seemed like an old pain, a familiar pain, but a crushing pain nonetheless… John had no clue what he'd be like if he actually died and left her, since given Crystal's talks there was an afterlife where you could choose to go see people you have bonded strongly with but usually could not interact with them except in their dreams, visions or hallucinations (non-corporeal variety). He supposed that he would never get over her and, in a pathetically selfish act, make her unable to get over him by visiting too much… Wait, no one had any idea on how long humans could live, so maybe it was best not to think about it.

Crystal finished chuckling, having discreetly infiltrated John Shepard's mind thanks to her psionic presence being a trusted signal, and stated "LMFAO."

"Regret is a name, Marines, the name of one of the Covenant's religious and political leaders, a Prophet, or San'Shyuum as we call them." Thel Lodam, Hannah's current communications officer as she'd appointed him, explained over the comm. "He's on one of those carriers, the center one, and he's calling for help."

Hannah reported her progress on neutralizing the anti-air threats in the area, the twenty Corvettes. "We have Ahwassa Bombers inbound on the Corvettes, Covenant Plasma Projectors on the Carriers and BBs are tracking and firing… Good, they seem to actually do REDUCED damage to air units… probably a speed and accuracy thing, excellent, Ahwassas can stand up to two shots then, three before the wreck starts breaking up. Othe Tactical Bombs are away… Sinnthas following up… Lost a few to AA fire but the Corvettes in your entry zone are going down, it's safe to move in now. The buildings aren't firing because their presence will make urban warfare simply jungles with lots of blocks cut out. Get aboard Regret's landed Assault Carrier and capture him. We want to know exactly what the Covenant thinks lies down there and what they have that can be used to access it. Happy Hunting!"

* * *

><p><em>New Mombasa, Earth, January 24, 3872<em>

James hissed in surprise as the external environment shown by the Gemini's screens suddenly barrel-rolled with a large green beam sweeping the sky, barely missing them. It originated from a tall, four-legged walker that was somewhat larger than a Harbinger, and much bulkier as Covenant materials weren't as strong as Coalition stuff. It was, however, still less bulky and weaker than a Brick. "Whoa… requesting Strategic Bomber strike on hostile Scarab in the area."

"Alright, I'm sending over two Shockers… that should take care of it." Division Commander Hannah Shepard said as she took her attention away from building a grille of wall segments and bottling in the Covenant troops wandering about, just for kicks.

"Taking fire!" Tali warned as several plasma turrets on the Scarab's back tracked them and fired on them, most projectiles missing but a few scoring hits. It was effectively nothing to the Evac Aerospace Superiority Fighter's reinforced shields as they flew on, still undergoing evasive manoeuvres. The Scarab's main gun was still dangerous even if it wasn't the Forerunner-augmented weapon the Super Scarab on Acadia had mounted (which, along with the Forerunner shield sphere, could have got a draw with an Infinite War Era Monkeylord). Speaking of which, a new burst of said weapon splattered the shields of the EASF before searing through and punching into the structural fields, taking the beefed-up fields down instants before shearing off half a wing of the Gemini, which went down in flames, racked by secondary explosions as systems fried sensitive technologies.

The Gemini buried itself into the side of a burnt-out building like a knife, it was one of the smaller UEF-style Residential Buildings (A/N: See in-game, especially on a map like Four-Corners). The black hulk with some red paint on parts was jutting out from it, unmoving, until a small explosion blossomed toward the back and John, James, Tali, Jedore and Liara jumped out, hitting the ground soundlessly as their QP Packs and armour recoil/inertial dampeners did their work.

"Shake it off, troops, clear the crash site! Go, go, go!" James ordered them while John called the other squads to check up on them, and reported to Hannah.

"Alright kids, you should get to this building over here" She highlighted the area in question "and play holdout for a bit, the Covenant in the area are gathering toward your area, stay put and let them come to you once you've seized this defensive position. Pick-up is en route and will arrive shortly."

The group, active camo and passive stealth engaged, ghosted toward the Covenant-held building, bringing silent death with them. At one ten thousandth of their normal colour saturation, the squad was effectively invisible as they shot unsuspecting Covenant in the back of the head, stuck plasma bayonets through their skulls or otherwise silenced them. After all, the time for mercy was over, the Covenant had come to the human home world, it was time to butcher them. Of course, this eventually attracted attention as the comm. channels were silent for the Covenant now, and so the wait for evac began…

* * *

><p><em>New Mombasa, Earth, January 24, 3872<em>

"Phantom Dropships, what the hell is the Division Commander up to, letting those guys actually get more than a few feet off the ground alive?" Jedore wondered as the Dropship dumped a load of Covenant infantry almost on top of the squad's current location (they'd gotten bored with turkey-shooting, so had deactivated active and passive camouflage).

"Don't know, but I hope she has her reasons…" John growled as he put three bolts through a Grunt that got in the way. "Such as those corvettes reforming a defensive perimeter? I do hope she'll send us a transport, won't she?"

A moment later the question was answered in the form of a Loyalist Siege Assault Bot trundling up to the crew without even shaking the ground, thanks to the impact dampeners that were used when intimidation was NOT the objective. "Special delivery, boys, get on and get rolling." Hannah called from the screen.

"The highest concentration of Covenant ground troops is directly below the carrier. I don't think they want you to get on board." EDI commented helpfully. She then highlighted a bridge over a wide river that wound its way through the city's gridline buildings "That bridge is the most direct land-only route to the city center. Proceed along the beach, wait, no, go deep down under… almost forgot all units can handle "shallow" water no problem." That meant anything on a continental shelf was fine.

"Going…" John replied as they "trundled" into motion at three hundred and sixty kilometres per hour before running into the ocean, splashing up a huge amount of water as they started running underwater. The Bot was slowed somewhat by the water resistance but it was not matter as it navigated the bottom toward the opposite shore of the river in question. "This is going to be a JOKE…" he grumbled as the Bot splashed onto the shore and vaulted onto the surface of the shore road with a single bound, landing almost silently before traversing its guns on the Covenant, still staring at the disturbance of the water, and firing.

With active camouflage and passive stealth, the Covenant never saw it coming before they were utterly blown apart. Well, some were simply squashed under the huge feet of the towering war machine, but that was beside the point. EDI called again "I've been analyzing the Covenant tactical chatter. They're surprised, confused... I don't think they expected us to be here. Not you and me…all of us…humanity, on Earth. Odd, I know, but it does help explain why they came here in such small numbers."

Jedore snorted derisively "Right, everything that's major and associated with Forerunners react to us and they didn't expect us to be on a planet that Crystal says holds one of the most important Forerunner artefacts?"

"I'm picking up Covenant units inside that tunnel over there." James called "Firing on targets now."

John transferred control of the Disintegrator Pulse Laser to his twin as well "Take the DPL too, we'll need it to break down the tunnel walls quickly enough. I'm ordering the tunnel to self-destruct right now…" A 5 appeared over the tunnel's icon on the strategic display inside the Loyalist. It was a blocky, grey and blue-plated tunnel, typical UEF styles evident in its construction.

James nodded as the number counted down and the Loyalist kept shooting up all the Covenant in the area, who were totally confused as to where all the near-invisible munitions were coming from. "Got it brother… Spooks are detecting multiple Scarabs in our operating area, we won't be able to handle them." Where Galactic Colossi stood head and tits over Tier 3 land units, Scarabs stood head and tits over anything else in the Covenant arsenal.

Right after they finished blowing the bridge and the Covenant inside apart, they moved toward the bridge on the second branch of the estuary New Mombasa was built on. "Miranda, what have you got for me?" John asked over the comm., after all, Commander Miranda Lawson was also operating in this combat region, handling the _Pillar of Autumn_ and acting as a Support Commander for Hannah.

"Check your strategic display." Miranda stated simply before closing the channel.

James blinked owlishly at said display, soon joined by his brother. "Alright…" Their eyes shot up to the forward display as the approaching Monkeylord began to project a hologram.

Jacob's hologram gestured grandly up at the war machine that had just walked up, making the ground tremble with each titanic footfall "Usually Nanolathing works in mysterious ways that few but the best scientists truly understand, but not today! This here is thirty-two thousand tons of Heavy Microwave Laser-sweeping, Heavy Electron Bolter twinkling, Nanite Missile-firing, and Torpedo-capable Experimental-class intervention! Courtesy of Commander Miranda Lawson, have fun experimenting with it!" He grinned before giving the crew a thumbs-up and disappearing from the holo the Monkeylord had projected.

John, Liara, James and Tali traded looks before boosting up and entering the airlock at the front of the Monkeylord, noting the fact that its three "Hard points" where other units would attach to the hull were occupied by an Athanah Heavy Mobile Shield Generator and two Serenity Heavy Mobile Artilleries. Four Loyalists (counting their original one), a Deceiver, and four Bricks marched with it in patrol formation, two of each ahead, the Deceiver under the Spiderbot, and the other four behind to deal with incoming tactical missiles, most aircraft, and of course the smaller foes that Monkeylord firepower would have been wasted on. "Let's roll!" John exclaimed as he issued orders to the unit group, maintaining Formation with the right command and pushing forward into the city, long since evacuated and teeming with Covenant troops. It would soon become a city of blood as Fatboys, Galactic Colossi, Soul Rippers and their escort units moved in to massacre the units that would have accompanied the Prophet's Carrier.

James stated his opinion "They may have slight superiority in space weapons, but we have more shields and industrial capability, and on land, well…" A pair of shots from the Heavy Electron Bolters, the "long-range" weapons of the Monkeylord, erased two Wraith hover tanks from the Strategic display, which was feeding them sensor data from the Spy Planes overhead and energy for the shield/stealth from the Control Nodes and Command Units that were around to form the battle network. "Let's find those Scarabs and squash 'em like bugs!"

Tali snorted and spoke for the first time (non combat-related) in quite a while "Putting a Monkeylord leg through one WOULD be a nice solution… Wait, you guys sure that bridge can hold the Monkeylord's weight?"

James nodded to his lover "Yeah, we build our stuff tough, that bridge has enough durability to, as a wreck, withstand, if only barely, a CZAR falling on it, and that's a whole lot more strain than a Monkeylord's weight can give. We could PACK that thing with Galactic Colossi and it wouldn't fall down."

Tali nodded "If you say so James… couldn't we just go via water? All the units can handle this shallow water…"

John cut in "True, but what would be the fun in that?"

Liara noted something up ahead "Hey, look, Ghosts and Wraiths!" In less time than it took her to say her sentence they had been eviscerated by Heavy Electron Bolter, Disintegrator Pulse Laser, and Iridium Grenade Launcher fire "Well, not anymore."

About halfway across (read: a few seconds later) a group of Banshees and Phantom Gunships accosted the convoy, which thanks to active camouflage on everything but the first two Loyalists was still an unknown to them. It was a Bad Idea, as the Electron Flak turrets mounted atop modern Bricks opened up alongside the Nanite Missiles of the Monkeylord and started swatting them from the skies in massive bursts of EMP blasts and disintegrating matter. After all, packed electrons suddenly flying apart released large amounts of energy.

They didn't even have to self-destruct a second tunnel the Covenant was using to regroup in, the Heavy Microwave Laser of the Monkeylord blazed through it in a few seconds and toasted all the Covenant once hiding inside.

As they moved on, Jedore, who'd stayed quiet for quite a while, noticed the first Scarab they were to engage ahead. Said Scarab didn't last long enough to enter HML or DPL (Brick, not Loyalist) range courtesy of a pair of shots from the Serenities and a few pairs of shells from the Heavy Electron Bolters of the Monkeylord, significantly scaled up, longer-ranged and tougher than the weapons of the same name on lighter units. They waded through the streets of the grid-work, abandoned city and smashed their way through several Covenant barricades with utterly absurd ease—including stomping over canals of molten glass left by the Heavy Microwave Laser of the Monkeylord. It was at that point that they faced their first serious foe, a Covenant Corvette that swung down through a particularly wide arterial boulevard and opened fire with its plasma chainguns and turrets on the units ahead of and below it.

John immediately adjusted the formation to shelter the Loyalists and Bricks ahead under the shield of the Athanah while they returned fire with everything they had, thanks to being equipped with Advanced Actuator upgrades. That allowed normal land unit guns to typically tilt up to about 60 degrees from the horizontal though firing rates were typically cut in half above about 40 degrees. Artillery guns only improved elevation/depression/traversing rate, like other units, while anti-air units gained anti-land capability (damage was usually not particularly high though). Of course, it was a VERY expensive upgrade, especially in terms of build time.

The Heavy Mobile Shield Generator currently nestled into a hard-point of the Monkeylord tried to hold out, but failed under the second volley of fire. However, the red, yellow and once in a while blue-green munitions flying the other way were also dealing damage. The Corvette's shields were visibly rippling under eight kilotons per second of blazing HML and the powerful impacts and detonations of the other munitions against it. It fired another volley on the Monkeylord, which used its hard-point "walls" to provide cover for the Athanah and Serenities while the units fired away at the "small" Covenant warship. Scorch marks began appearing on the Spiderbot as it took damage while dealing horrific amounts of damage in return. Eventually, the match ended in a clear victory as the HML sliced through the shields and engine block of the Covenant warship, setting it off in a large plasma explosion before it fell toward the ground, the HML still firing, tracking it as it went down, bisecting the vessel before it could hit the ground.

The Athanah's shield rebooted over the severely damaged Spiderbot as it lumbered into motion again, trailing smoke from the fires of the secondary systems that had been breached or fried. It was not hindered, however, as the main core systems were good enough to keep it going, besides, it was slowly self-repairing. That was just in time for five Scarabs, scurrying into view, to open up on the Monkeylord. As was well known, a group of Armoured Assault Bots could take down land assault experimentals excluding Galactic Colossi with reasonable losses, and this was the same, but the T4 units was already badly damaged. The beams fired by the Scarabs nearly bored through the Athanah shield again. Bricks and Loyalists raced out to body-slam the walkers to the ground as the Monkeylord's guns traversed and began twinkling or blazing away once more. The Serenities also pitched in with the butchering they were doling out.

In the end though, it was not fast enough to deal with the five Scarabs that surrounded it, and the Spiderbot collapsed under the pressure, critical and sensitive technologies frying as it fell down. The legs slumped as the main body smashed down on the ground, hard-point walls retracting and allowing the units inside to roll off the burnt-out husk and continue the fight.

The Bricks were smashing the remaining two Scarabs to pieces now, aided by the Loyalists, and silence descended upon the battlefield before the ground crew exited the wreck via airlock. They were unscathed, thanks to the internal fields and inertial control only deactivating after the unit's collapse. "What are we doing now?" John asked Hannah for instructions.

"All of you guys get up here, the Restorer's arrived on-site, get moving, and you need to run for it." Hannah ordered "I'm turning over control to Hackett and Ariel, the Prophet is bugging out, the _Pillar of Autumn_ is engaging, I'm recalling to the POA."

"Division Commander, do not engage that Assault Carrier yet! I'm vectoring the _Ascendant Justice_ to butcher it star-side." Hackett barked.

As the Restorer the crew was riding docked with the Pillar of Autumn, Hannah noted "Slipspace rupture off the target's bow! It's going to jump, INSIDE the city! ENGAGE IT! Sorry, Hackett, but…"

Hackett's young-looking face showed up and nodded curtly "I understand, good hunting, Division Commander."

"EDI, get us close, follow that Assault Carrier, no matter what!" Hannah shouted as soon as she ascertained her ground crew, her sons, were docked.

"Got it, ma'am." The Adjutant-turned-AI-turned-woman stated as they closed distance with the Assault Carrier, the only survivor of the Covenant ships after many exchanges of fire between the groundside ships and orbital defences.

* * *

><p>AN: REPEAT QUESTION (if you haven't answered yet): I need two name suggestions for twin girls. I will take my favourite ones or more likely pairs and put them up as a poll on my profile. It's for John and Liara's first two kids. Also would be nice if I could get a name suggestion for Tali and James' first child (be it boy or girl).

What do you guys think? REVIEW!


	22. The Lost Pearl

A/N: The defeat people were asking for, with a snippet in the beginning to address an issue some people had.

Disappointingly few reviews last chapter. Let's give you some food for thought: Crystal holds one portion of an old, old story, the Protoss another, and the Zerg, through Urz and Kerrigan, the another. This story spans over a quarter of a million years and five Reaper Wars. Other fragments of the story are scattered across parallel universes, across many, many worlds, though Crystal holds some of the larger fragments, she does not have them all. Now, the next part of the story is being forged… in fire.

* * *

><p>Chapter 22: The Lost Pearl<p>

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, Slipspace, Leaving Earth, January 24, 3872_

"Liara, when we get to the destination…" Mirala started.

"Yes?" The avatar asked, sitting there and basically on standby as she did work on the _Hagalaz_, the real Liara, that is.

"Could you NOT announce the abilities you're using?" Samara finished for her daughter.

"I agree with the other two." Crystal piped up "It takes the mystique away and it gives people too many hints as to the identity of one of your past lives."

"Fine… but when I start writing my autobiography, if I don't put occasional hints, people are going to be VERY shocked about that particular lifetime."

Crystal smirked "Not as much as some of the others."

Liara shrugged distractedly, still at her job on the _Hagalaz_ "Those too."

* * *

><p><em>Pearl II, January 24, 3872<em>

"From here we shall launch our first major offensive into Covenant Space." Ivan Brackman said over the loudspeaker "We have been pushed around enough, bullied enough, it's time to strike back and show the Covenant just what we are worth. I expect nothing but the best from you all in this endeavour." The fleet he'd been given roared approval.

The 54th (for that was the fleet number associated with Ivan Brackman) Assault Fleet consisted of a core of thirty Heavy Destroyers, though they were weaker than the acclaimed experimental-esque _Pillar of Autumn_. The other ships included fifty Light Cruisers and seventy Light Destroyers, in addition to a hundred Patrol Carriers and a hundred Heavy Frigates. The smallest ships present were two hundred each of Air Staging Boats and Light Frigates. Seven hundred and fifty warships awaited the order to depart, eight thousand crewmen ready to head out at a moment's notice.

"Now, it is time to head off into the heartland of the Covenant, some of us may not return, but we shall make them pay for every nanometre of space they've occupied, though that term is used loosely" A snicker ran through the Fleet at the thought of the Covenant having bypassed six hundred-plus Cybran planets, including some Core Worlds and Procyon itself, before it quieted "We will stab into their heartland and wreak havoc among their races, starting with the Jiralhanae, the vilest of Covenant species in habit and mannerisms! Fleet, MOVE OUT!" There was a collective roar as seven hundred and fifty warships jumped away toward the nearest Jiralhanae-held world. Sure, the Coalition respected Unggoy as they were obviously conscripted, Hunters for being hive intelligences and protecting Unggoy from getting bullied by Jiralhanae, and Sangheili for their strong sense of tradition and duty, but the other races were NOT respected and thus their planets free game on this great hunt.

* * *

><p><em>Some Jiralhanae-held planet, January 24, 3872<em>

Seven hundred and fifty contacts appearing on scanners, moving toward a planet defended by an inferior number of warships and surface-to-orbital guns, meant a sort of panic among the defenders, and of course the rapid silencing of said defenders. Their communications already thoroughly jammed, one hundred Covenant vessels took up positions among a meagre thirty orbital defence platforms. They opened up at long range on the incoming warships. It was a nasty surprise, as ODP Plasma Projectors were more powerful than their ship-mounted counterparts, five times the total power per shot. That meant three times the damage to Structural Fields and Shields.

Ivan Brackman quickly yanked the smaller ships that took the shots behind the shields of the Light and Heavy Cruisers and Destroyers. The escorts weren't tough enough to survive a second volley, the Destroyers and Cruisers could take quite a few hits if necessary. Fusillades of Loa Tactical Missiles and waves of Mavor shells launched from the fleet at long range, before they closed enough for Heavy Microwave Lasers to open up as they manoeuvred nimbly to avoid the incoming Plasma Projector beams. Each ship had its own volume in the fleet in which to manoeuvre so as to avoid collisions while maintaining maximum fire coverage.

Needless to say, the Brutes didn't stand a chance, one by one, their ODPs were torn apart and their fleet routed. Ivan knew that he wouldn't get any reinforcements after starting his mission until declaring it either finished or a failure, so he was very careful in reducing damage to his own ships. It slowed the job down a little but at least he didn't lose any irreplaceable ships. As the last Covenant warships jumped away, he called his fellow commanders up to the bridge. "Thalia, Dominic, we need to decide just how to go about cleansing this planet."

Dominic Maddox, awoken from his sleep by the comm. beeping, and the night shift Commander of the fleet, clipped his helmet on before replying "How about we just carpet bomb it with strategic bombers, or maybe strategic nukes?"

"Sounds about right, Thalia, you got any input?" Ivan asked his former crush bluntly.

The Aeon woman shrugged "Never cleansed anything myself, so I wouldn't know, but Dominic's plan does make sense… though I think it would be more appropriate to only bombard military targets."

Dominic disagreed "That makes it too easy to rebuild, I think we should bomb everything except for residential districts and forests. That way this planet will be nearly useless to the Covenant AND they'll have lots of refugees to deal with… I'm REALLY glad we have clean nuke or whatever we use technology."

Ivan nodded "Me too." He turned toward the display of his other old friend "Thalia, I think Dominic's right, we'll do things his way."

The Aeon nodded in deference before cutting the channel. Ivan issued the commands to the units by marking the residential districts as a collective as non-targetable, then looked back to his other old friend. Dominic blinked owlishly at Ivan before starting "What was with the tone you used with her? Talking to her like she's a child won't help your friendship, bro. I've noticed you've been growing more distant toward her, I used to be the one to feel like a third wheel… is something wrong?"

Ivan shrugged "Nah, I just realized what an idiot I was, then I made a move, and I got shot down faster than a Jester would be shot down by a Transcender. I decided to stop being pathetic and act like there never was anything at all between us, just friends. From what I can pick up from her, she isn't even annoyed by that, so I guess I'm right to act like there never was anything between us." The Cybran noticed something "Why is your right eye twitching?"

Dominic quickly stilled that eye, it seemed he might lose the betting pool he, Jaran, the Elite Four, Rhiza, Dostya, and the other Coalition leaders had against Brackman after all… "Nothing, Ivan, but I hope you know what you're doing." He frowned, maybe Ivan was right, after all, Thalia spilled EVERYTHING to them, and if it was a problem with Ivan she'd talk to Dominic about it, so apparently there wasn't anything there. Maybe he should withdraw from the betting pool… _No, no, there is _always_ hope…_ Dominic Maddox thought.

He didn't even quite manage to convince himself. So, he did the next best thing: go back to helping Ivan monitor the progress of the bombing of the planet with clean, environmentally friendly (beyond the massive wildfires) munitions.

* * *

><p>AN: Yes, that shoot-down will eventually show up in the Ardat-Yakshi Chronicles.

* * *

><p><em>System of Pearl II, January 24, 3872<em>

Not two hours after the 54th Assault Fleet left the system, a few badly damaged Covenant warships arrived near Pearl II, hoping to set down on a habitable world to effect repairs and wait for rescue if need be. There was just one flaw with their plan: As they came in for landings, one Frigate speared itself atop a towering black and red, Cybran-style (jagged but still square-ish) spire.

The orbital defences, knowing the planet had been discovered, opened up immediately, slaughtering the Covenant warships, but they'd already gotten messages off to the Covenant, and two nearby patrol fleets, each over three hundred warships, were closing distance toward Pearl II in slipspace. The 54th Assault Fleet were running silent, out of communications for now, and the nearest Coalition fleet was an hour away, as they had been amassed at Earth, Sanctuary and Procyon for now. There had been a storm that passed through this region a few days ago and then the 750 quantum wakes had destabilized things just a little. It was odd, but Quantum Realm stability often was odd in how it worked, or sometimes did not work.

The response from High Command was "Much regret, unable, Second Battle of Sanctuary in progress. Seven thousand of ours and five thousand of theirs, we can't spare any more ships from Earth or anywhere else."

Ten minutes after the first shots were fired, the Covenant warships were picked up incoming through Slipspace. The call for help went out immediately as alarms went off throughout the city and civilians flooded into the Civilian Transports, Civilian Trucks and air-buses that docked at the buildings or were already contained inside. As soon as one filled it launched toward the Gate Complex of each settlement. Coalition Evacuation Doctrine maintained that every settlement had to be built with evacuation of the entire population within twenty minutes in mind.

It wasn't fast enough as lines of fire crossed the skies less than five minutes after the Covenant ships were detected, the orbital defences and few warships still on-station were buying time for the civilians below to vanish through the Gates. As warships reached their breaking point they ducked behind the shields of others and continued fighting until the fleet was nearly wrecked in its entirety, the fifty Light and Heavy Frigates and Patrol Carriers only having inflicted one hundred thirty-seven Covenant casualties. The fifty nearly-wrecked warships accelerated, shooting off Evac Geminis, and barrelled toward the Covenant ships at high Warp. It was the equivalent of a biotic Charge, except for the fact that it was a bunch of starships, all over 800 meters in length, ramming into other, larger, slower warships at high speed.

The Orbital defences were silenced after that by massed plasma projector fire before the Covenant warships turned their guns on the planet, furious that it had cost them over two hundred of their compatriots. Plasma Projectors lashed out at any piece of land that looked as if it might hold a city, and soon enough they found some settlements still not completely evacuated. The Trucks, Transports and Air-Buses scattered for the countryside as was doctrine when cities were under orbital siege. But the Covenant fleet was meticulous as they battered Pearl II, carving deep canyons in the landscape and forging blazing rivers of glass that marred the blue-green sphere that was called Pearl II. The cities fired back with their guns under their slowly buckling arrays of overlapping shield domes, taking more Covenant warships with them as the kilometres-tall towers began to crumble, but it was not enough…

It would be a rallying cry for militants in the Coalition for a long time that the military needed a severe increase to protect the Coalition's planets. That would prove invaluable when the Reaper War came to pass, but that was a later story. For now, the death toll of Pearl II reached up to over a billion people, thirty percent of the population, in a couple short hours as the planet was thoroughly bombarded. Then the first scrounged-up fleet of as many of the Coalition's remaining heavier ships could be scraped together and off the Earth defence fleet at the time arrived. It included the slightly refitted _Ascendant Justice_, still sporting scaffolding and engineering stations on the surface constructing more weapons mounts as it moved toward the Covenant fleet, plasma projectors blazing at what had once been its compatriots back when it served a different master.

The improvised battle group, led by Grand Crusader Ariel Williams, had just arrived from Earth. It smashed through the Glassing Formation of Covenant warships like a Monkeylord thorough a sheet of wet paper. Guns bellowed silent fury in the vacuum of space as Covenant ship after Covenant ship was annihilated. The Covenant fleets tried to surrender, as Ariel Williams was known among them for being relatively merciful, and she accepted.

The remaining two hundred Covenant warships, unable to flee due to the Slipspace Jammers deployed around Pearl II when the battle began, surrendered and were corralled together into a loose cluster. "This is Grand Crusader Ariel Williams to Covenant warships, power down your weapons and engines." Ariel ordered, and they complied. "I am known among your people for mercy, yet how much mercy have you shown the civilians of Pearl II? We have a saying, Covenant, listen well: do unto others as you would have done unto yourself." Some of the smarter Covenant commanders realized what that meant and began rebooting systems. "Fleet, Fire at Will." Ariel finished simply.

Tens of thousands of assorted guns from the three hundred Coalition warships poured into the Covenant cluster, flaying the already-damaged ships apart. Ariel leaned forward as she saw the escape pods launching. "Leave the pods, I have a reputation to keep up."

There were murmurs of protest through the fleet, but no one dared disobey as they systematically butchered the Covenant warships, which tried to fight back as well as they could despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Of course, that wasn't very well at all.

* * *

><p><em>Some Kig-Yar-held planet, January 24, 3872<em>

The 54th Assault Fleet had razed all agricultural and military facilities on the Brute planet before moving on. They had left everything else unscathed with their precision munitions, as it was the best way to create chaos and refugees. Now they were striking at a Kig-Yar or Jackal planet, they were much like the Batarians, many of them being pirates and slavers, so if one world's population was evicted, evacuated by the Covenant, there would be bitter gang clashes.

Thalia Kael was commanding this particular battle. She had swung a fifth of the fleet around the system's gas giant as another fifth headed toward the planets. She'd lured the Covenant Fleet away from the habitable planets in-system before engaging them in orbit of the gas giant with three-fifths of the Assault Fleet. Four hundred and fifty warships slugged it out with three hundred Covenant ships, using cycling shield coverage and battle lines to reduce casualties to nil until a hundred and fifty ships smashed into the rear of the Covenant battle group, severely disrupting them and tunnelling through their core, scattering their formation as they burst through, shoving wrecks out of the way by application of ordnance and ramming.

In the meantime, the ships and starfighters of the planet-targeting group were enacting the same protocols of burning everything except forests and population centers. They couldn't burn the forests because they weren't of much agricultural value and would produce enough noxious gases to probably suffocate or otherwise really damage the planet. Caught between a hammer and anvil of Coalition warships, the Covenant fleet began to die faster, though a few Light and Heavy Frigates were lost on the Coalition side of the deal.

In the end, losses were a staggering ratio of three hundred-some to thirteen, and no Coalition crew members were lost. Besides, the hulks weren't damaged TOO badly and thus could be rebuilt by engineers operating off other warships given a few hours, at least, restored to functionality so they could move and repair themselves while moving, though their HP would be very poor for quite a while, they would at least be able to boot up shields and fight.

The 54th Assault Fleet left a swathe of destroyed Covenant warships and a wrecked planet full of refugees behind three hours later, an hour before Covenant ships arrived to check on the comm. silence. It wasn't as impressive as Hannah Shepard's record, considering she ran around with less than two hundred warships, mostly lighter ones, and razed thousands of Covenant warships on a regular basis while most of the Commanders were hard-pressed to get even kills to losses ratios. Still, it was another major "victory".

It was at this point, near the end of Thalia's shift, when both Dom and Thalia were on-duty, that they patched into the news feeds from back home and received the terrible news of Pearl II. It was quickly determined that the next strike would be pushed ahead in time frame, meaning right the hell now, and be against a Drone-controlled planet. Since Drones were expendable in the Covenant, they would simply use Scorched Earth protocols: Destroy all agricultural, mining, industrial, and residential facilities, leave nothing behind but the oceans and barren continents.

* * *

><p>AN: There, the major defeat people asked for, a few hundred million civilians, more than the number of dead Covenant military members. A flash of what Ivan, Thalia and Dominic are up to (Getting over stupid infatuations, being almost stupidly oblivious, and wondering if his bet was a good idea after all.)


	23. Seeds of Doubt

A/N: Agreed, Hannah needs a new man to hook up with… I can just imagine what sort of guy it will take though, someone on her level… hey, wait, since she is still young (technically, and she looks the same as she did in her early twenties physically), and Steven falls in the same age group… I can just imagine John and James insisting that their half-siblings if any have the last name Hackett instead of Shepard. NO! I am NOT going to find Hannah a new man yet. She can bunk down with Ariel and maybe Eric when she wants some stress relief. The Grand Crusader is very accommodating and her husband doesn't argue against it either.

Ivan/Thalia is NOT a pairing I'm giving up on! It might look like it but things are not as they seem, Ivan may have given up, but Dominic and everyone else high in the command chain or in their circle of friends is betting against Brackman, and no one wants to lose. As soon as they're back from raiding, let the set-ups begin!

Re-terraforming Pearl II will be completed within a couple months, because the underlying geology hasn't changed and the oceans and water bodies are still effectively intact. Smoothing over a few canyons and craters won't take long with the number of Engineers to be deployed. Still, the anger felt over it will last a long time, probably all through the Covenant Schism, don't worry, the Coalition of Species will still side with the Separatists, much as they sided with the Seraphim Separatists back in that war.

Skip the following paragraph if you don't want to hear an anti-ONI rant.

I'm going to put something politely after I read more Halo crossovers featuring ONI being their usual satanic selves: There is NO WAY IN HELL that Halo canon will meet SupCom, otherwise there would be a huge ACU-spearheaded witch-hunt for ONI members and believe me, the UNSC, even with their Separatists helping, will not have a prayer of lasting through the ACU blitz (TIME is what counts, 800 worlds is nothing for a concerted ACU assault, 2 days, if that). Every single ONI member must die, and if that means every human in the UNSC, only about a trillion at most, the Coalition's factions have done worse to themselves, it is a necessary evil and not much of a mark considering the Infinite War meant at least something on the order of twenty times that number dead and the Seraphim War probably about five trillion or so. Note that whereas Coalition evac doctrine DEMANDS that everyone be off a planet within thirty or so minutes of the first alarm, UNSC doctrine is, well, shit. The Coalition would have an ideology clash with the UNSC larger than the UNSC had with the Covenant, as Coalition soldiers are now TAUGHT to consider orders before carrying them out, and the UNSC especially ONI does the exact opposite. Spartans will be useless against the Coalition since for their augmentations they cannot match up to Coalition Marines (if only for gear, outside armour three Marines could take down a Spartan just due to the augmentations all mankind has in the 38th century, and yes that's a 1300-year difference), the Aeon ones often have mental powers, the Cybran ones faster reflexes, and of course the UEF durability and patriotism. In the case of "Imported (Special Delivery)" troops like a certain Legendary Commander, she can probably swat Spartans at a 50-to-one ratio and come out victorious. Then again, this version of Liara can take on something like that too.

* * *

><p>Chapter 23: Seeds of Doubt<p>

_Near High Charity, Halo Ruins, January 24, 3872_

"When we joined the Covenant, we took an oath!" Rtas Vadumee barked, pacing in front of his Spec Ops crew.

"According to our station! All without exception!" The collective group called back, though they still upheld the Fleet of Particular Justice's proud tradition of cynicism in the form of a sarcastic sign that said "Including taxi drivers" being held up.

Rtas smirked at that, before growing serious again "On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons…we swore to uphold the Covenant!"

"Even to our dying breath!" The troops droned back.

"Those who would break this oath are Heretics, worthy of neither pity, nor mercy! Even now they use our lords' creations to broadcast their lies!"

"We shall grind them into dust!" The troops replied sullenly, looking down the mission briefing page.

"And continue our march to glorious… salvation." Rtas glanced back, voice slowing, and then blinked, Coalition Infantry Gear was spotted? That might be a problem… no, would be a major problem. He clicked his two remaining mandibles on his right side in agitation over that. He glanced over at his old friend, who everyone still blatantly addressed as Supreme Commander despite his new job as Arbiter. "This armour suits you, but it cannot hide that mark."

Thel Vadamee shrugged casually "Nothing ever will."

Rtas snorted "Well, the soldiers here are of one mind."

"You'll always be our Supreme Commander, and we'll follow you, whatever you order us to do!" The soldiers shouted as one "You brought us all from being failures to being the most elite troops of the Covenant, and we will be with you to the death!" There was fire in the soldiers' voices now, not like the dread that had been there at the prospect of facing Heretics armed with Coalition infantry technology.

Rtas smirked, with only one mandible set, it looked more like a grimace "See, Thel? Being Arbiter does not make a difference, nor does the mark. We'll be with you, no matter what."

"Right, I think we should get this job over and done with quickly though, to prevent excessive losses. What fleet detachment is Sesa Refumee from?"

Rtas paused for a moment "The Fleet of Particular Justice. He used to be one of the Shipmasters, one of the smaller warships, until he got a communication from someone we couldn't trace and turned. Then he got the delivery of gear by a fast Coalition ship performing a supply drop. There's a storm inbound toward the facility but well be gone long before it hits."

They came closer to the Gas Mine that was their objective, dangling below a Forerunner anti-gravity platform on a long cable "You know, I almost wish we had that absurdly overpowered Coalition woman here with us, on our side, then she could probably squeeze all the Heretics to death with only a thought." Thel smirked as he continued the thought "Then again, we'd be turned into meat sauce, so maybe that's not such a great idea, I do hope we've got access to Fuel Rod Guns though."

Rtas bit his mandibles together "Uh…"

Thel facepalmed and groaned "Oh Gods…"

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Installation, Threshold, January 24, 3872<em>

"Warriors, prepare for combat!" Rtas called over the comm. as they disembarked atop a tower jutting out of the center of the Forerunner platform. "As they say, Arbiter, we are the arm of the Prophets and you the blade, be silent and swift, and perhaps we'll all make it out of here in one piece, or less than about three pieces." He pointed at the missing mandibles of his face and the crew chuckled. "We have nothing, not even the element of surprise, be careful, we don't know how much Coalition technology the Heretics have."

Fortunately, as they smuggled themselves in under active camouflage, they found that Minimal Body Armour had only Omni sensors up to about ten meters, ergo the Heretic Grunts who were equipped with the body armour fell victim to a powerful lunge with Thel's plasma swords, though it took some time to burn through and even then had to be wedged in among the gaps in the plating to work out. It took a whole minute just to kill two Heretic Grunts, and another two minutes to strip off their gear to put on the Spec Ops Grunts.

Still, that was well worth it, as Rtas chose to put it "This plating is much better than what we have around, even though it's not recognizing us as authorized users so there's no shielding or environment control, just the plates are worth the trouble."

The rest of the facility was eerily empty from that point onward, and Thel was beginning to suspect the Heretics had already evacuated. It wouldn't be much of a shock, if the storm was able to disrupt communications, the Covenant ships overhead wouldn't be able to detect much. Then again, the seraph in the bay they'd just dropped into seemed to counter that hypothesis… "Sentinels!" Thel shouted before ducking behind a crate in time for the cutting beams of the drones not to slice into his shields too badly. As soon as he made sure he was covered, he poked on plasma rifle hand over the top of the crates and began firing at the Sentinels.

A Spec Ops Elite roared in pain as a slash from the Sentinels cut into his armour and he ducked back behind cover "They are the holy warriors of the Sacred Rings, why have they sided with these Heretics?" The male questioned. No one answered.

"Arbiter! Clear the hangar and open the door so I may drop the second lance!" The Phantom pilot called over the comm.

"We'll do it, as soon as we're done with these Sentinels." Thel called back as he shot another Sentinel a few times and it plummeted to the ground.

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Gas Mine, Threshold, January 24, 3872<em>

The facility had a strangely haunted air to it, the only enemies being Sentinels. The Heretics seemed to all have left already. The group kept moving, passing yet another door. Two Spec Ops Sangheili covered the entrance with Needle Rifles while Spec Ops Unggoy trooped in. Rtas and Thel brought up the rear, Rtas pausing and sniffing the air, Thel frowned at his old buddy "What is it?"

"That stench… I've smelled it before." Rtas' eyes widened "Flood!"

A holoprojector drone floated up and Sesa Refumee appeared, the soldiers fired a few shots to make sure it wasn't an active camo ploy, then held fire. "I wondered who the Prophets would send to silence me… an Arbiter, I'm flattered."

"He's using a holo-drone, must be close, come out, so we may kill you." Rtas growled.

Sesa snorted at that "Get in line. We abandoned this facility because of the Flood, though thankfully they couldn't infect us thanks to our new gear, I'm sorry that you'll end up having to meet the creatures, but if you insist on trying to kill me…" The male shrugged helplessly "feel free."

Familiar bulbous little critters began to appear, and one Elite called out "Leader!"

"Stand firm! The Flood is upon us!" Rtas called.

"Heretic fools! What have they done?" Thel snarled as he destroyed Infection Form after Infection Form.

Sesa's hologram popped up again "We're hard at work cutting the cable atop the Mine, we need to contain the Flood, they cannot be allowed to spread, ever."

"Does anyone else think that's an unusually un-Heretic-ish thing to do?" Someone wondered aloud.

Thel snorted "Does anyone else think that was a very un-grammatically-correct thing to say?"

"May our Lords guide you, though you may have turned upon them." Rtas whispered before Sesa's hologram vanished.

They broke into the next room, where Sesa was casually leaning against what could be described as a tall grey block. "Ah, I see, you've made it, excellent, I'd much rather die by an Arbiter's hand than let the Prophets lead me to slaughter."

Rtas growled at that, standing next to Thel and looking at the strangely armoured Sangheili "Who has taught you these lies?"

"The Oracle!" Someone behind Thel whispered as if to himself.

"Hello! I am 343 Guilty Spark. I am the Monitor of Installation 04." The floating sphere-like object with the light in the middle greeted the newcomers. Needless to say, all the Elites present minus Sesa had pretty widely space mandibles by this point.

"Ask the Oracle about Halo, how they would sacrifice us all for nothing!" Sesa gestured vaguely.

The ball's eye light glanced at Sesa for a moment before looking back up at the crowd "More questions? Splendid! I would be happy to assist you."

Sesa held up a four-fingered hand and everyone paused for a moment "One moment, guys, before we begin, I need to ask Supreme Commander Thel Vadamee, you were once a good, strong, virtuous, all-round good guy, how did the Prophets buy your loyalty? The promise of the Great Journey? Look around you, Arbiter, this facility and others like it resulted in the study of the Parasite, but where are the weapons, Arbiter? What was the result? All that time and effort and the best the Forerunners could do was put the damned critters on ice. And now where are these Gods the Prophets would have us worship? Transcended?" He laughed mirthlessly "Hardly, Arbiter, if the humans had not destroyed the Ring, you would know where they went, Guilty Spark, tell them!"

"Gladly, this mining facility predates Installation 04 by several hundred years. It was It was retrofitted to research possible offensive and defensive measures against the Flood. Indeed, I designed and oversaw the construction of this facility's various outbreak management systems. The cable on top of this mine was designed as a fail safe in case an outbreak took place. I am glad someone had the foresight to cut it! Fortunately, all the Flood organisms on this installation will perish once this facility enters the planet's nitrogen core."

"What was Halo built for? Tell us, Oracle, what is this Great Journey the Prophets have told us of?"

"Halo's purpose was rather simple, all sentients not of Reaper creation, that means everything except Protoss, Zerg and Flood, will be eradicated by its blast, those three species or types of organisms have the strength needed to resist, though Flood will be first to fail should Halo fire. They are not as resilient as Zerg or Protoss to halo's effects, though still stronger than other species." Guilty Spark explained "During the Forerunner-Flood War, our Forerunner-Reaper War allies had either been indoctrinated or sufficiently so that they were waging bitter civil war in their own sector of the galaxy. When they had exhausted every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings, they, and every other thinking being within two radii of the galactic center, died, as planned."

"No…" Rtas hissed in disbelief, Thel said nothing, merely stood there, one eye twitching, as he considered the data.

"Oracle, I do believe you may have been compromised…" Thel started slowly, it might not be surprising if Coalition people were involved, after all, some of them had FACIAL CIRCUITRY for Forerunners' sake! Who knew if they had hacked into the Oracle's systems? "Surely the Great Journey could not be such a deception."

"I'm picking up more contacts coming in, recommend scooting ASAP." A male voice called.

"Alright, Jaran, moving out." Sesa stated, boosting up onto a grey block of some sort before turning to look at the Arbiter "Listen to the Oracle, there is much that it can tell you." He said gravely.

"Don't let him get away!" Thel barked, raising his plasma rifles and opening fire only to be stopped a meter or two from the grey crates by a shimmering surface-hugging shield. "What the…"

"Witness, a C-14 Star Lifter Tier 2 Air Transport." Sesa stated simply before the airlock he had walked into cycled shut, leaving only smooth grey hull armour before the aircraft turned invisible and shot out of the bay with absurd speed, tossing everyone in the bay against the opposite wall with the recoil.

"So, Oracle, what can you tell us of the Great Journey? How did it work?" Rtas said after the crew picked themselves up, noting the Phantom entering the bay.

"Oracle? Great Journey? Why do you meddlers insist on using such inaccurate verbiage-ohhhhh myyyyy!" Guilty Spark flew through the air to be anchored onto the top of the Fist of Rukt, Tartarus' gravity hammer. Thel growled at seeing the hated brute again, noting with satisfaction that his eyes still looked rather blood-shot from the damage they'd taken with his vomit attack.

"That… is the Oracle!" The former Supreme Commander snarled, wondering if this would constitute heresy and an excuse to kill the foul Jiralhanae.

Tartarus removed Guilty Spark form his hammer and tossed the orb into the gravity lift of the Phantom casually. "So it is. Come, we are leaving this system." He followed the orb up.

Rtas and Thel exchanged a look with the rest of the Retribution Detachment soldiers present (nearly all the Retribution Detachment had good enough performance to count as Advanced Ops or Spec Ops) before hissing "Discuss this at a later date."

"Agreed." The troops murmured in the empty bay as they boarded the other Phantoms that had come in.

* * *

><p><em>CSC In Amber Clad, Forerunner Gas Mine, Threshold, January 24, 3872<em>

"Some of the troops still aren't completely comfortable with being on a Coalition warship, especially with the ghost ship feel to it." Sesa commented as he lounged about the bridge.

Jaran Kael glanced over form the command seat of the brand-new semi-prototype Heavy Cruiser "It is kind of weird for a ship over one and a half kilometres long to only have a hundred crewmen, eh? And almost all of those are the Marines assigned for security…"

"Yeah, I can hardly imaging having only ten crew for such a large ship… Well, they're away from the Gas Mine now, shall we eviscerate it?" Sesa asked.

"Yep, Heavy Microwave Lasers and other weapons activating, active camouflage and passive stealth holding steady…" Jaran narrated as the guns of the rather large warship swung about and slashed the Gas Mine to tatters within a few seconds of massed fire. The desk-sized chunks of debris kept plummeting into Threshold's atmosphere "Great, let's jump the hell out of here." The Aeon-born Cybran smirked before activating the jump coil spin-up. Less than a minute later, the giant warship was no longer in the general area of space Halo once was in.

* * *

><p>3872 Heavy Cruiser<p>

Coalition 3872 Heavy Cruisers were designed with a more realistic objective than the Heavy Destroyers, though still more powerful than their smaller cousins. They can still tear their way through small clusters of lighter Covenant warships, but will encounter trouble (though less than the Heavy Destroyers will) against Battleships, Assault Carriers, or Super Carriers. The steady increase in prevalence of the first two of these three warship classes in fleet make-up has caused some alarm in the Coalition. According to Thel Lodam, this is due to the fact that during the Unggoy Rebellions huge numbers of the heavier capital warships were built and deployed. The lighter Cruisers, Destroyers and Carriers more popular for their fast-attack capability today are in fact mostly the product of post-Rebellions production, partly because the heavier warships were too much of a strain on economy to field. Now, though, the Covenant is beginning to take the Coalition more seriously and deploy the newly upgraded versions of the venerable warships once more. They are almost as frightening as a fully functional and _upgraded_ Protoss Mothership in power, and are therefore supreme threats (the Super Carrier far outclasses anything else known, perhaps even Reapers). The Heavy Cruiser is a stop-gap measure before Battle Cruiser and Battleship designs can be finalized and fielded along with the 3872 Escort Carriers, Fleet Carriers and Super Carriers, the ECs being already on the drawing boards.

1600m x 800m x 500m l-w-h

400 (T3) Hangar Capacity (800 T2 or 1600 T1 can be fitted instead), 900 External Clamps (up to 300 T3 craft or 450 T2)

Armament:

10 Heavy Microwave Lasers (Note: Standard Heavy Destroyers only sport 12, not the 18 of the _Pillar of Autumn_)

8 Mavors

8 Sonance Artillery (still used for speedier traverse and more compact size than Mavor)

16 Heavy Oblivion Cannons

8 Heavy Plasma Accelerators (newest-generation Novax gear, partly ripped off of Covenant Plasma Projectors)

30 Triple Gauss Cannon Turrets

30 Medium Oblivion Cannon

30 Quarnon Cannon

60 x 12 Loa Tactical Missile Racks

50 Ultrachromatic Beam Generators

90 Ravager Plasma Chainguns

100 Zealot Space Interception Missiles

80 Electron Flak Turrets

60 Will-O-The-Wisp TMDs

100 Zapper TMDs

6 SMD Silos

* * *

><p>AN: I can just hear Sesa and Thel Lodam when Thel Vadam and Rtas Vadum realize the truth at last, now that their faith has begun to be shaken. "I TOLD YOU SO!" Maybe I should have titled this "Explosions of Doubt" since it grows that fast…

I figured out why the last chapters have relatively few reviews: The FFN E-mail Alert network glitched, I just got notifications saying I uploaded Ch 21 of Reclaimers and Ch 4 of Sup-Bal. O_O

ANYWAY, REVIEW!


	24. The Second Halo

A/N: Don't worry guys, that rant was just me ONI-hating. Unquestioning obedience is what gets people into genocidal wars, after all (ahem, Covenant).

I agree that ONI mostly saved humanity and that it was probably the best thing they could have done, but for the record Halo canon is absurd at best in terms of Spartans. The Coalition wouldn't go on an ONI-hunt unless the organization tried to usurp the UNSC. For the record, when a secret service gets way too much power, including an army of super-soldiers (let's be real, they aren't letting go of the Spartan program) who HAVE IMPLANTS AND CAN HAVE AIs IN THEIR HEADS (hmm, Cybran Loyalty Program anyone?), they are NOT going to let go of that power easily if at all. The moment they stop back-stabbing one another and get their act together they'll realize they rule the UNSC anyhow, so we're looking at an ONI War at most a couple decades after the Covenant War ends. I'm serious, nothing like a post-apocalyptic homeworld and nearly extinct military (other than your own troops) to make one attempt a coup.

The Spartan project cost trillions of credits. Those could have gone into a smaller, more accurate slipspace drive (nukes delivered by slipspace-capable missiles? Actually, just the Slipspace cores would do enough damage…), starship shielding (even being able to absorb one or two direct plasma torpedo hits is BIG), or Marine equipment (sorry, but 1000 times 2 is still larger than one times 1000 in terms of combat ability and survival capability). I'm not saying Section Three was wrong per se, but I seriously doubt those credits couldn't have done better elsewhere, saved maybe seven Core Worlds instead of a quarter of one, Earth. I'm not believing everything other fanfics say, but I'm just being real in that there is bound to be a coup when ONI's power starts getting curtailed. It's like Himmler would have done with time after Hitler died. At least, Section Three would try a coup. Cortana could get into MC's brain, who's to say Section Three doesn't have a Loyalty Program as a "fail-safe" in case a Spartan turned on them?

As for the absurdity of Spartan stats, consider the following: Deceleration required to dent titanium is like the deceleration of hitting Reach after falling from the Pelican, enough to liquefy flesh protein structure (I do Biology, I should know). A bunch of Spartans died then, which does not make sense since they're supposed to be so freaking tough, huh? Also Halo does not make much sense, there is no such thing as "300% faster reflexes", only "One-quarter reaction time". Don't forget that a realistic Spartan might have the reflexes, maybe speed, and processing speeds cited by Halo, but there is no way in hell that they can have that sort of strength. Coalition Marines even unarmed have the following: If Cybran, much faster reflexes than even Spartans, as parts of their brain are cybernetic instead of just some of the nerves. Superconducting nerve fibres do not speed up a signal, just reduce the waste heat of transmission, after all. They'd also process data faster. If the Marine is Aeon, psychic capabilities are fairly common and even if you don't have them you'll have empathy and a good idea where they will attempt to strike next. UEF Marines have neither of the above but some of them when inflames are able to sort of project a defensive barrier even if they aren't biotic/psychic. Add that to the 3800s human baseline, which has been much, MUCH upgraded from today's humans. Bones that contain flexible fibres and what is basically biological bone weave, enhanced immune systems and some regeneration, enough to regrow a lost limb on their own within two months with proper nutrition, skin with a sort of biological skin weave underneath, at least minimal psychic capability, the ability to control gene expression to a limited extent, partial control over hormonal secretion (most only have enough to use as a contraceptive), etc. If they have mental powers, Aeon élan toward offensive, Cybrans toward support (i.e. Neural Shock or Confusion), and UEF toward defence. Do NOT underestimate a 3800s human! Hence why I suggested a 1 to 3 ratio of Spartans III to Coalition humans, for a Spartan II it's more one to five or so. With their respective armour, on the other hand, well, there's no competition. If you can melee a Spartan to death, and you can with enough whacks to the head, that's just sad for the armour designers. 117 only fell 2 kilometres (with a hatch from the Keyship for a heat shield), John Shepard's armour did over 100 km to the surface with nothing helping, shields and even the QP Pack was fried, and it was still salvageable after it hit the ground and bounced several times (inertial dampeners so damaged they could only protect the contents, not the armour itself, at least, not much). Ergo why I said Spartans are super-human only from our perspective, from the 3800s, they are strong, but not super-human, especially not in the other aspects.

Did anyone notice N7 without the slash in the N makes 117? THAT is why I tagged John-117 in this fic, John Shepard is playing his role.

Dear **Too Lazy**, I tried to avoid putting in lemons for about 200,000 words, but then I realized that to introduce the Ardat-Yakshi plot element I needed lemons, that's why I put them in. Most of the readers seem to like them once in a while, hence I continued with putting them in once in a while, on average I believe it's something like once per 100K words? That's not too often, right? It's just that it seems frequent because I UPDATE FAST! I know that the Shepard twins are effectively dreamboat boyfriends, and Tali and Liara are fantasy girlfriends, it's the point of The Game (the universe being sadistic, just like many people like to be when playing video games where they are basically God). The two couples dovetail together altogether too well, so when they get torn apart one way or another it leaves a huge, ragged wound in both, or more often whichever one is left. And if anyone thinks Tali and Liara are the leaders in the relationships, they are, Tali's case is "it's always the quiet ones", and Liara's case is completely normal for someone whose past self basically carried the Cybran Nation through most of the Infinite War. I mean, Legendary Commander T'Soni invented the Loyalist, Revenant, Soul Ripper, improved the Monkeylord, and did a whole lot of other stuff. She was a leader, and it's reflecting in this incarnation too to a certain extent.

* * *

><p>Chapter 24: The Second Halo<p>

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, Near Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872_

"All status indicators green, guys, except that thing." Hannah muttered, pointing out to the icon that represented ANOTHER Halo ring. "Get groundside, guys. Thel, you sure your intel's accurate?"

The Communications Officer nodded "Sesa wouldn't lie, Thel Vadamee has been demoted from Supreme Commander, he's now an Arbiter, a mostly religious position that doesn't really have the authority to command fleets anymore."

Hannah snorted as the Autumn battered and rammed through a light Covenant screen of the smaller warships before settling down on Halo Two, as she'd decided to call it "Heh, he was their best, managed to figure out what I was up to every time, usually a bit late, but better than the other idiots. I feel sorry for them… if no Flood infestation occurs, we'll be milking this Ring for what it's worth before we blow it up… again."

"Prophet of Regret located in this temple complex, recommend ground insertion for capture." Garrus called from his station, highlighting a temple complex some distance up-spin.

"Huh, you might encounter Honour Guards if a Prophet is down there. Their Energy Staves are considerably more dangerous than Energy Swords, and if they've smartened up they'll carry Fuel Rod Guns with them, and have Mgalekgolo support. From what I know, you can't afford using real heavy infantry weapons indoors, they'll try to milk that." Thel Lodam added thoughtfully.

Hannah smirked "That has been anticipated, which is why John's going to get a lot of use off his LBR Sniper Overcharge."

"That will still… oh, right, a few shots is better than nothing for punching through a Hunter shield."

"Yep, now, John's team should be performing insertion on the Prophet's location right… now." Hannah stated as she watched her sons, Tali, and Legion plummet toward the surface, having jumped from the E-Gemini that had delivered them. QP Packs kicked up to full as they bored down toward the surface, accelerating them toward terminal velocity faster.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

The four-person squad's Quantum Propulsion Packs reversed thrust directions at the crew's behest, as they neared the ground, without the crew feeling a thing. It was before the automatic safety feature would have kicked in, ergo it was a very smooth deceleration without the crew feeling anything. Unfortunately, Tali managed to land on a tree and snap off some branches. A few nearby Unggoy and Kig-Yar noticed this and panicked with their Shade turrets, firing indiscriminately at the trees, highlighting the crew's over-shield bubbles. "Damn it… I hope we don't make too much more noise." Tali growled as she returned fire.

The hiss of an INL firing followed by a thunderous explosion answered her, and she sighed. James glanced at his twin "You know we could just wait for…"

"What would the fun be in that?" John asked rhetorically just before a subtle alert in the crew's helmets alerted the crew's sensors to the arrival of their vehicle: A Blaze T2 Hover Tank. It had been chosen above the Yenzyne for superior manoeuvrability (less likely to clip something) and the Riptide for the cannons' more "radial splash" nature against Covenant. Oh, and it could also go OVER water instead of under it like the Wagner. John paused suddenly as he picked something up "Inbound Phantoms, get in the Blaze quick!"

"Great, vehicle battles, could it be any more lopsided?" James grumbled as they climbed into the tank and the turret spun on its effectively invisible hull, elevating to fire on the incoming Phantom.

"We didn't bring a Fatboy, did we?" John asked.

"Negative." Legion droned.

"Well then _alles gut_, is it not?"

"… since when did you speak German?" James asked after the first Phantom went down in flames, having been caught off-guard by the dual Quantum Autoguns the Blaze sported, the newest model thereof, of course.

"I read a science fiction series someone called Harry Turtledove wrote about what would happen if the Race had arrived in the middle of World War Two instead of nearly two thousand of our years later." John explained.

"…Right."

* * *

><p>Liara's avatar spoke up for the first time after she'd been deployed to the battlefield "That building complex on the island in the middle of the lake is our target. If I was a megalomaniac, and I'm NOT, that's where I'd be."<p>

"The Covenant have control of a bridge ahead, going to try to bottle us up on this side of the gorge. Sadly, they haven't realized that Coalition units are built to handle slopes up to sixty degrees up or down, and Hover units can boost across narrow chasms, that little gap is no longer than three times our length, so it'll be an easy hop. Too bad Thel Vadamee and his troops aren't in charge, or this might actually be slightly more challenging." EDI sighed over the comm. before highlighting the bridge in question and watching the strategic icon of the Tier 2 Hover Tank go zipping off toward it. "By the way, there are Wraith tanks on the other side, to a Blaze, they can actually deal some damage, be careful."

"Hey, isn't that a hologram of our target? What's he doing? Giving a speech?" Tali asked, looking at the hologram of the hologram in question, portrayed on the inside of the Blaze.

"A sermon, actually, I've been listening to it since we landed. So far, some standard Covenant literature, but I'll translate if he says anything interesting." Hannah sent over before going back to managing the _Pillar of Autumn_'s defences.

Several structures of Covenant, mostly blown up before they could do much, later… "And this is why I conclude a non-hover vehicle would have served us better." John growled as they passed directly over the heads of MORE unsuspecting Covenant, then deactivated the hover engine to drop down and cake the bottom of the vehicle in MORE meat paste.

"The Covenant are holed up in the middle of this structure, we need to clear them out." EDI supplied, highlighting the structure in question.

John sighed before heading to one of the airlocks of the Blaze "Well, it's time to go on foot again. Let's go squash some Covenant balls… never mind." He finished lamely as Liara smashed a hole through the side of the temple wall with a move he'd never seen before. "What was that?"

Liara smirked before starting "Crystal asked me to not reveal it, but I'll ignore her for now, it's…"

The pink crystal floated out of John's armour compartment, or at least an image of it did "…unwise to reveal right now, you can tell him later." It dissipated right after that.

Liara huffed at that, though she admitted to herself that Giga Impact was a bit of a weird name for a move "Fine then, now let's light them up!" She growled just before letting loose on the temple with a mental shockwave, like Neural Shock but much stronger, or at least broader-radius. It didn't affect the crew with their structural fields (not that it would have with Liara's mind recognizing them as friendly).

They came across a hologram of the Prophet of Regret after blasting through several groups of Covenant, still dazed from Liara's Psyshock. It was rambling "In a gesture of peace and reconciliation, the San'Shyuum promised to find the means of the Forerunners' transcendence, and to share this knowledge with the Sangheili. The Sangheili promised to defend the San'Shyuum as they searched. A simple arrangement, that has become our binding Covenant!"

"Transcendence, huh? More like mass suicide." Crystal growled from her place in John's pocket. "Come on, let's clear this place out and move on, it's not an important building anyways, I designed these things, I would know."

* * *

><p>"You always did bring me, no matter what incarnation of us, to such nice places." Crystal chuckled as they came to a waterfall flowing into an idyllic little creek. Well, it would be idyllic if it weren't for the Covenant bodies leaking blood into said creek, mostly holed through the head or torso by laser bolts or gauss rounds. A few were blown apart by Phasic munitions or certain someone's mind.<p>

Another voice, just a little different from Crystal's usual one, but still recognizable as Command T'Soni's, spoke up "Agreed, why I remember…"

"Don't tell them now! Commander! Wait until they figure it out for themselves, then we can have some nice laughs." Crystal hissed to that part of herself.

"Come on, I could tell them about how I died at least…"

"NO!"

Tali was staring at the compartment of John's armour unblinkingly "… Right." She muttered, before turning back to proceed onward.

"How's status, EDI?" John asked the AI in question as Legion toyed with a Covenant plasma pistol, the newest model, inspecting it for similarities to Geth plasma weapons. They were not that far apart, actually, rather similar to the long-reload plasma anti-tank weapons the Quarians had once deployed for infantry use at medium or closer ranges.

EDI shrugged "Still no word about the _Pillar of Autumn _on the Covenant battle net. It's odd, the Covenant knew we made landfall, but they don't seem to consider us a very serious threat. Boy, are they in for a big surprise."

They walked past a hologram some time later of Regret chanting a sermon. "Wait, go back." EDI said. The sermon seemed to be in accented English…

"I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!" The megalomaniac chanted.

"Mom, we have a problem." John announced.

"So I hear, but he will need an object, the Index, to activate the ring." Hannah stated simply "After he gets the index, all he'll need to do is insert it into the Control Center and the ring will fire."

"I thought I'd engineered these to only let Reclaimers through, wait, no, that was for oh-four and before, not this one… damn it! DESTROY THIS INSTALLATION!" Crystal shouted.

"Relax, I've got the missiles primed and ready, at the first sign this thing's powering up it'll be gone just like oh-four as you call it is gone now."

"Great…" Crystal settled a bit. "I'm sending you the Library's coordinates, the Index should be inside, and I bet the Covenant are thinking the exact same thing."

Hannah nodded gravely "We'll need to send down a ground crew, Garrus, Samara, Miranda, Jedore, Mirala, get ready to roll out, and yes, that's command hierarchy as well. Take out or better yet capture the Prophet boys, he's given us all the intel we need."

* * *

><p>The crew had decided to forgo the gondolas leading to the temple island and instead strike out across the wide lake alone. Well, not quite alone, considering they were encased in a sleek, metallic, mostly invisible, generally white and swirling green patterned shell (with speckles in addition to the swirls), hovering about eight meters above the water as they glided silently across, but that was beside the point. What was the point was that this was one hell of a lot faster than QP Packing (they would need to take periodic breaks) or battling through the gondola line. "This lake couldn't have been created by volcanic action, which means it was either built this way on purpose or was created by some other cataclysmic event." EDI was rambling.<p>

"We believe this lake to have been built this way." Legion droned.

Crystal vibrated a bit "It was, the main sections are underground and underwater, the complex above was built for defensive purposes."

James glanced up "Too strong for us to penetrate alone?"

"Yes."

John nodded "Then we call in an air strike, Mom, got any bombers on hand?"

"I had a Revenant circling overhead all this time and you guys didn't notice? Shame on you… there, target set, beginning bombing run." The Proton bomb may have been high yield but due to its nature did not ripple out as much as a typical nuke would, ergo it was contained, but the splash area was still larger than other strategic bombers for the fact that none of the bomb energy was devoted to throwing up a containment matrix for the blast to rebound off of (intensifying the damage over a smaller radius). THAT was why Revenants did less damage in terms of structural field or shield rating points than other bombers, because their yield was more spread out.

Needless to say, by the time they got close enough to hear the fires and flames, the temple complex had been bombed three times and the Revenant was long gone, leaving only a smoking ruin on the island as it went to bomb the gondola platforms. Well, okay, the pillars of smoke rising into the skies made it kind of obvious most if not all of those are done for already as well…

"Great, now we just gotta see if the elevator's still functional, I think we bombed it a bit too hard." Crystal groused as the crew disembarked and searched for the shaft. "Okay, should be under that fallen wall."

They pried the slab of stone off through assorted means, okay, so maybe the Blaze's Quantum Autoguns helped "a little"… but that's beside the point… "This platform believes that venturing into long, dark, vertical, pseudo-aquatic holes is hazardous to our well-being." Legion deadpanned.

"No it's not, the Shepard twins do it on a regular basis—" Crystal was abruptly cut off when John muted his speakers, then an image of her floated out of the armour compartment "As I was saying, the Shepard twins regularly venture up dark, vertical, and very wet holes." A clank announced Tali's helmet-palming while James and John shook their heads sadly.

Legion's eye widened and then narrowed "Ah, sexual innuendo, must observe, record data…"

Crystal laughed before her image dissipated again. John sighed and un-muted his speakers, it was pointless anyways. The Crystal was too old, too powerful… an agglutination of too many spiritual imprints of what was perhaps an ever-growing manifestation of the one who termed her past selves the "Ultimate War Machines", to contain. "Well, let's see where this one leads." He stated blandly before jumping, lighting up the shaft ahead with night vision in his helmet and controlling rate of descent by bursts of QP Pack thrust.

Hannah's face showed up again as they descended through the shaft "I've intercepted a secure transmission from Regret's Carrier to the something called _High Charity_. It seems to be a formal apology to the Prophets of Truth and Mercy. Apparently, Regret jumped the gun when he attacked Earth. He's asking the other Prophets to 'forgive his premature arrival', arguing that 'no human presence was foretold.' That explains why there were so few ships in his fleet. But it's odd that a Prophet would have such bad intel about his enemy's homeworld."

"High Charity is the Covenant holy city, a gigantic space station housing many millions of Covenant of all races." Thel Lodam piped up "It is the center of Covenant warship, well, the Forerunner Ship inside it is."

Crystal sounded agitated as she spoke again "Tali, didn't you say that your people had seven Dreadnoughts?"

"Yes, same as the Forerunner Dreadnoughts we found on the shield world…" Tali trailed off, not sure where this was leading.

"Liara, what does the Founder's Monument on Thessia look like? Wait, don't answer that, it should look just the way it did before from above, like a skeletal diagram of 1,3,5-trimethylcyclohexane, damn it, it's all coming true…"

"What's coming true?" Everyone asked

Crystal sighed as everyone stared at her "A prophecy of sorts that I made shortly before the end of the Forerunner-Flood War."

Everyone kept pressing "Well?"

"It goes like this…"

* * *

><p><em>Five minutes later…<em>

With the blatant exception of the crew mechanically clearing Covenant from the elevator landing after hewing through the top of the elevator, there had been no words spoken since Crystal had finished reciting her prophecy. The entire network had been silent, even the Pillar of Autumn crew and the Library crew had been disturbingly quiet.

Finally, Miranda spoke over the comm. "So you're telling us that Tolkien was ripping off of you."

Crystal replied with "Well, it's complicated, I mean, I'm quite sure time travel was involved in establishing the Forerunner civilization, since we had the Lord of the Rings series in our time as well, though I never read it. A lot of people thought that after I recited the prophecy to them."

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that prophecy one more time? I don't think the first section is quite consistent with what we know so far." Tali requested.

Crystal huffed "Fine, let's ignore it for now, until we meet those Keyships…"

* * *

><p>AN: You should be able to guess most of the prophecy, but don't expect me to reveal it until ALL the pieces fall into place at an embarrassing diplomatic incident near the Citadel.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"Most of those we encountered in our search were compelled to join our Union. To take part in moment of promise, Freedom for Allegiance, Salvation for Service! But some, like the Humans, chose to impede our progress. Block our access to sacred sites, damage Holy Relics! For their transgressions, the Humans shall be hunted until none remain alive!" Regret's hologram announced moments before it turned into vapour.

"Scratch the idea of capturing him, we'll have a lot of good fun slowly pulverizing his bones." Liara's avatar growled menacingly, after all, a threat had just been made against her soul's mate. Sure, he could defend himself fine, but protective instinct as well as the Ardat-Yakshi taint of "This is MY dinner!" spurred her on.

As they took the next elevator, miraculously intact, down, EDI sent something else over "Regret's carrier just received a response from High Charity. A very well encrypted message from the Prophet of Truth. Listen to this: 'Your haste has jeopardized the fulfillment of our Covenant, threatened our grand design. That you shall be spared a public display of our contempt is thanks only to Mercy and his wise counsel.' Truth, Mercy, Regret. Three Prophet Hierarchs. Killing Regret should shake up the Covenant leadership. But frankly, it sounds like you might be doing Truth a favour."

"You know, this job would be a lot faster if we dropped a Salem, Uashavoh, Exodus or Cooper here and torpedoes these underwater installations to drown all Covenant inside not wearing EVA gear." James thought aloud.

As they were busy clearing the next area and sustaining damage in the process, another hologram was saying "Every member of the Covenant shall walk the path. None will be left behind when our Great Journey begins! That is the Prophets' age-old promise. And it shall be fulfilled!" That was, of course, shortly before it was silenced.

"'Great Journey'? Doesn't he know what these rings do?" Crystal snarled scornfully.

The next elevator was more or less horizontal, and led to the temple where Regret probably was right now, underwater. "I'm picking up some major Slipspace activity!" Hannah warned before giving the crew a PIP feed "Five thousand ships, largest fleet anyone's ever seen, and… oh my fucking god that is HUGE…"

"Behold, High Charity." Lodam stated simply upon seeing the hologram of the gigantic mushroom-esque structure.

"There's a Keyship in there if the prophecy and our intelligence data is right." Crystal was saying as the crew battled on toward the temple "Get to the Temple and kill Regret before they can stop us!"

"The Covenant Fleet has launched waves of Phantoms, too many for the ASFs I have in your region to handle, be careful, guys." Hannah warned "Flak will keep the Autumn and my firebases safe, but the same cannot be said for you. I'm routing Ascendants (Aeon T2 Mobile Flak) toward your location right now, but they'll take a few minutes to get there."

"Honour Guard presence detected in temple, number… many." Legion droned as they rounded the first corner and the AI received a stiff chop to the shoulder form an energy stave, taking a chunk out of his over-shield before he returned the favour with stabbing his Sniper Mode LBR's bayonet into the Honour Guard's shields before letting loose a Sniper Overcharge that blasted the Elite back but somehow did not completely penetrate. A couple normal Sniper Mode bolts to the head did the job though as John grappled with another Honour Guard, using his own LBR, albeit in Assault Mode, as a sort of short pole arm, the plasma bayonet being the blade, and sword-fighting with the Honour Guard in question.

Of course that was before Liara entered the scene and a good, shotgun Warp field turned all non-friendly targets in the hallway to goo or at least finely shredded bits. "I think you just ruined the fun." Tali groused as she hadn't gotten a chance to use her flamethrower—much—yet. "We haven't had some good hand-to-hand for a LONG time, Urz and Grunt would love this place."

"Maybe I can sic them on High Charity." John suggested. He had no idea how right he'd be.

"Sounds like a plan." Liara's avatar replied with a smile, strolling forward casually, batting things into the ground or ceiling with absurd ease. Then again, if she could survive creating an image of a twenty-seven kilometre starship, killing dozens of armoured and shielded soldiers was child's play for her. "I won't step in unless things become too uncontrollable in the throne room guys, you can have your fun. John, if I see your shield pop though…"

"I know, Liara, don't worry, those Honour Guards don't stand a chance against our superior hardware… There's the target, eliminate him!"

The first sign something was amiss in the throne room was three Sniper Overcharge bolts crossing the room in an instant and punching into the shield over Regret's throne. "You dare to interrupt my sermon?" The Prophet shouted indignantly as the crew turned their attention to the guards "Guards! Remove this vermin from my sight!" As the Honour Guards advanced on the ground crew cautiously, energy staves held at the ready, Regret's eyes narrowed "The Demon… Warriors! Attack! The Demon must die."

"Fire at will! Prepare for hand-to-hand!" John Shepard barked before charging, his LBR, having locked into Assault Mode earlier after the failed first strike, letting out silent bolt after bolt that the Honour Guards' shields absorbed as they charged. This wasn't like the Apex Installation on that Shield World, where they were coming down a bottleneck, here, the Honour Guards had the terrain advantage… but they had the equipment advantage. The only problem was that heavy weapons were not options. That was bad.

The two lines clashed thunderously, eight on four, with the Coalition group having snatched SMGs as secondary weapons as well as short plasma swords (the two-barrel SMGs had the plasma bayonet mounted in between the barrels, and Phasic SMGs had it underslung like Brute Shot blades) in their left hands. The only one still only wielding one weapon was Tali, who was throwing down a sheet of Purifying Flames (newest formula) and had engaged the dual plasma bayonets that could be mounted on her Mark Three Flamethrower. They were on either side of her nozzle, making it almost trident-like in design, but were crescent-shaped, rather akin to the Ji of ancient Chinese pole arms. The Honour Guards did their best to avoid her, providing her manoeuvring space needed to slash at them with her plasma bayonets. She parried one strike after the next from their energy staves as they tried to hack away at her.

James had unleashed his Combat Drone, which rose out of its shoulder pod and hovered over the battlefield, firing down at the enemy incessantly. Its master was currently taking a blow from one Honour Guard as he closed distance, parrying another's blow with his LBR. James then swung a spiked fist at the Honour Guard who'd hit him only for the Sangheili to duck under the blow, but no matter. The best thing about the relatively angular nature of Cybran armour was the effect of a knee to the face plate. It was much better at making a sharp dent than Aeon or Seraphim armour, with their smoother curves would be. UEF Armour was similarly capable, though as Legion discovered when she shoulder-rammed an Honour Guard back before winging his rifle, locked in Sniper Mode, almost as one would swing a glaive. The problem was that the other Honour Guard he was fighting had just recovered from an LBR Overcharge bolt to his shield and locked Legion's rifle with his Energy Staff. The Geth kicked at the staff and it broke, leaving the Honour Guard to grab his Sword barely in time to parry Legion's lunge. UEF shoulder plates, unlike Cybran ones, were sloped with the shoulders and not sticking out, so the Honour Guard Legion had rammed managed to recover quickly enough to attempt a lunge at Legion with his energy staff, with the result of the Geth twisting out of the way in time for the two honour Guards' weapons to crash against one another and leave both recoiling if only for a moment.

That moment was enough for John Shepard to leap in and smash an un-spiked fist into the side of one Elite's head and then headbutt the other one, using the small "horns" of his helmet to crack the eyepiece of the armour. Then the one Honour Guard he'd been fighting (having disposed of the other one through fancy blade-work and lots of shooting) jumped into the middle of the fray just in time to take a punch to the jaw that included an Electron Grenade, which stuck. The Elite did the only thing he really could, activating all his plasma grenades and then trying to bear-hug the Cybran marine before he got blown up.

John was nowhere in sight when the Elite soared in a flying tackle into an invisible barrier in front of the space he had occupied moments ago. He'd QP Packed over the battlefield and was nodding thanks to Liara's avatar, who was hanging back. She smirked back at him and mouthed "Kick their asses."

She got a curt nod in reply before one of Legion's opponents suddenly dove out of the way of a Cybran marine coming down where he had stood. "These Honour Guards are really quite good." John commented before he boosted up just enough to slam his LBR, complete with active bayonet, down on the Elite, snapping the Energy Staff against his chest plate in the process. "Unfortunately, their shields and armour still aren't as strong as ours." He twisted the bayonet a few times before yanking it out of the steaming, lethal wound with one hand, the other seizing another energy stave swung at the back of his head. Using his armour's strength, he snapped the shaft, but the Honour Guard was skilled enough to simply grab the head and fight as if it was a short battleaxe. John parried away with his Laser Battle Rifle, firing all the while, and then stabbed forward with the LSMG he had just unholstered. He came up short against the extremely reinforced shields of the Honour Guard, who grinned just before he realized his shield was still dropping steadily from the LSMG's twin barrels. That was all the surprise John needed to wrench his LBR around and start shooting even as he kicked the Elite in the chest, knocking the taller warrior off-balance long enough to drill his LBR's bayonet through the Sangheili's neck.

Legion had managed to kill his remaining opponent with a simple stab after a punch where the male had not been expecting it—the crotch. Tali was already done with turning her foes into cinders and James had finished his job too. Regret growled before bellowing "Incompetents! I'll kill it myself!" The second wave of Honour Guards, the last eight before the Prophet, saw an opening, and, as they bore spare Energy Staves, used their current staves as javelins.

The Staves zipped over the crew's heads on ballistic trajectories toward a certain avatar, still using the human image of herself, Liara didn't even have her eyes open as she smirked. The staves froze in mid-air before whirling around and heading back toward the Honour Guards. Since one or two hits wouldn't kill an Honour Guard with full shields, she targeted only two guards, turning them into pincushions even as they tried to dodge.

The ground vibrated slightly as a rumbling roar went out, the Honour Guards almost shivering for a moment as a blazing mass of red and matte black armour smashed into their line, batting down their staves as if the deadly poleaxes were nothing. Using QP Pack speed and full armour strength, John Shepard snapped the neck of the first Elite like a dry twig, wrenching the helmet around so hard the head almost tore off. The best thing about Coalition helmet designs was that unless you were Krogan, there was always enough room for the helmet to do a three-sixty without your head moving. Well, okay, if you were a Krogan, your neck was effectively impossible to snap due to physical structure and orientation anyways.

The next guard raised his staff defensively only to have it snapped with a hard kick to the chest just before a spiked fist smashed into his mouth guard, snapping two of his mandibles and tearing up the other two. John Shepard brought up the Gauss LMG he'd changed out for and rammed it into the Elite's belly while holding it up by its throat. He opened fire just before turning and using the hapless Sangheili to shield himself from the downward swings of the other guards. He threw the body at one Honour Guard before grabbing the staff it had once held and smashing it against another's shields with superhuman strength. The Sangheili actually staggered under the blow, leaving John Shepard to hop over one Energy Staff's sideways swing and catch the last one with his plasma bayonet as it slashed diagonally at him.

The one who he'd hacked at with the Energy Staff received a deluge of Gauss munitions to the face mere moments later as John twisted his GLMG around enough to fire despite it being locked with a struggling Honour Guard's staff. That guard went down soundlessly, and the one whose weapon was locked with John snarled, pulling out his sword as well as maintaining his hold on the Staff. The Marine snickered as he batted another slash away with his arm. He disengaged his Plasma Bayonet for only a moment, and the guard stumbled forward, perfect. When he re-engaged the bayonet, the Honour Guard was literally run through with it as it activated. Still, the dying guard swung his Plasma Sword at John and tried to hold him in place for his compatriots to kill. Unfortunately, John's hand caught the aliens just before he pulverized the bones under his grip and QP Packed them up, so that it was the Elite who was sawed nearly in half by his brethren's Energy Staves.

John came crashing back down, having activated Passive Camouflage for just a moment, on top of one of the Guards. Sangheili physiology may be tough, but even Zerg (other than Ultralisks) were not designed to handle five hundred kilograms of raging Coalition Marine smashing down at something on the order of a hundred and eighty kilometres per hour without damage. It wasn't maximum QP Pack speed, but space and acceleration room were limited…

After smashing through the last Honour Guard's defence by taking some damage to his own over-shield, John found himself the target of an alarmingly powerful strike form the Prophet, burning through his over-shield and eating away at his personal shield as he rolled into cover. "Perhaps you underestimated me, no?" The Prophet asked before firing his dual plasma beam emitters again, forcing John to go for another piece of cover, firing back with the rest of the squad.

"Alright, you've done enough damage to my mate, this ends NOW!" Liara snarled in what seemed a near-demonic roar before unleashing the same overloading Psi Storm technique she had used on the Shadow Broker on the Prophet. Needless to say, the megalomaniac cooked in mere moments before the area was bathed in the white light of the explosion. "Let's get the hell out of here!" She shouted.

"The Phantoms are turning around, the Fleet is going to fire on your position! The lake is too shallow to protect you!" Hannah warned.

The crew ran for the elevator they came through, QP Packing their way up and through the tunnels they had moved through until they emerged onto the island, the Blaze already waiting there for them, airlock open and accelerating away. They slammed into the far wall of the airlock before it cycled shut and the Tier 2 Hover Tank accelerated away from the island at maximum speed. The tremendous shockwave of damage from the blast, however, shook the Blaze, making its relatively weak personal shield and over-shield splutter and fade out before the structural fields began taking damage. It was nearly wrecked before a giant tentacle swept up out of the depths and slashed into it, grabbing it and pulling it under just in time to avoid a plasma turret shot to the water where it would have been.

"This is not your grave… But you are welcome in it." A deep, disembodied voice spoke.

* * *

><p>"GRAVEMIND!" Urz screeched, his first actual word in conversation in English, though there was still an irritating, screechy accent to it. "There's a Gravemind on this ring!"<p>

"John, James, Tali and Legion just disappeared from the scopes!" Kelly reported from her post.

"We've been nabbed by something with tentacles, the Blaze is too damaged to risk underwater combat, besides, down here we can only fight at melee range because of the water!" John's static-laced transmission came.

"Well then find out what Gravemind wants." Hannah stated "If it's trying to capture them, it must have an objective. If it's the same as ours, stopping this Ring from firing, then we'll go along with it… for now. At least, until we can find a way to safely get off this damned Ring. We've gotten to the Library by hacking through a Flood-infested zone with a large ground army and heavy shelling from multiple Salvations keeping the path clear, but the Index is already gone…"

John growled before roaring "Damn it!" and punching his palm.

Hannah agreed "Sounds about right."

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><p>AN: I hope the Honour Guards put up enough of a fight to be worthy of the title.

QUESTION: What is a good male name for Falere's counterpart in a past life? And what's a good girl name that would correspond to Jaran? Mirala is going to be Mir, and no one else is going to get a sex inversion, but please answer.

QUESTION TWO: Does anyone think Thresher Maws seem a bit like the Harry Potter Basilisk? I can imagine Harry having the Big Game Hunters achievement in the Trophy Room of Hogwarts…

REVIEW!


	25. The Fractures Spread

A/N: Is it so wrong that I'm already itching to start writing the Pokémon: Rise of Legends fic that I have planned out and ready before I finish this story? I mean, I gotta write something to occupy myself while I'm in the middle of waiting for the next games to come out so I can start slowly wrapping up this fic string somewhat. After PROL I'll probably be writing a C&C fanfic before ME 3 and Heart of the Swarm come out… I'm just that fast at writing. (Not to brag or anything…still, you know it to be true.)

**Too Lazy**: It's good to see I was slightly overreacting, your latest reviews tell me you are not one of the flamers I've encountered, true, I'm not that great at physics, and of course technology changes amazingly quickly, but still the point remains that some Halo stuff is just a bit stupid. Super MACs cannot fire down toward a planet without disrupting tectonic activity by punching right through a plate. YOs on the other hand have their (10x total power) yield spread over a greater area and so do not punch through tectonic plates, environmentally friendly warfare after all… MACs also have overly long charge times and the lower-end MACs are rather dumb. 600 tons at 30 kilometers per second… why don't you just lob a 60 kilogram slug at 3000 km/s (same yield, FAR superior range) or even 2000 km/s (4/9 yield, still far superior range and much harder to detect and dodge)? If you had to cut yield, so be it, sacrificing 50% firepower for double range is well worth it! Also, with all the lessons today's navies have (all the way from back in WWII) you'd think ODPs would have hundreds of AA missile launchers at the ready with thousands of missiles, but NOOOO…

Also like to say that in my fics, if it is used between lovers in a healthy and sexual relationship, the term "rape" will, for all except maybe one occasion (to be written into PROL) refer to rough, needy, animalistic and dominating sex. As we can see in the culmination, Tali DOES have a dominance thing in terms of pinning James down and screwing his brains out one way or another, the fact that in these days (ever since the late 2100s) women are stronger than men when they want to be helps greatly. Of course, in the one occasion in PROL when a character will actually get raped, he's not going to be complaining much when his girlfriend of quite a few years unfortunately falls under the effect of a powerful aphrodisiac and loses all her inhibitions at once. Though he would have preferred their first time to be sweeter and less rape-like…

CORRECTED A HUGE TYPO: The Founder's Monument looks, from above, like a skeletal diagram of 1,3,5-trimethyl**cyclo****hex****ane**!

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><p>Chapter 25: The Fractures Spread<p>

Aka: Thel Vadamee, the Amazing Attack Buggy (TVAAB)

_Hierarchs' Chambers, High Charity, Near Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872_

Arbiter Thel Vadamee (yes, technically he was supposed to be nameless, but everyone else disagreed, so he was only nameless before the Hierarchs, Kig-Yar, Drones and Jiralhanae, with everyone else, even some Prophet friends, he was still Thel Vadamee) was as the humans would put it pissed. He was so pissed in fact that he wished the aforementioned piss was real, then he could have drowned the Hierarchs and the new Jiralhanae Honour Guards with a flood… no, deluge of urine. Besides that, he couldn't do much as she watched the dumb Brutes fight each other for choice parts of the Honour Guard equipment. He sighed before walking toward where the two remaining Hierarchs were speaking with Rtas and two of his most elite warriors, Usze Taham (who the Supreme Commander knew was female) and N'tho Sraom. The male was according to public opinion Usze's oblivious best friend and potential love interest, yes, Thel Vadamee knew these things, after all, before the war, things had been so incredibly boring in the fleet that the Supreme Commander had taken to speculating about matchmaking. _Heh, the humans call us Sangheili "Elites", what are they going to call these guys and me, Elite Elites? Sounds kind of weird…_ He thought cynically, after all, though he was no longer Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, Rtas had made it clear that he should still hold up the fleet's reputation for sarcastic/flippant efficiency, not that he wouldn't have anyways.

Still, it had been rather irritating when they'd had to hurriedly throw off the pieces of Coalition armour they'd acquired intact when they started beeping. Five minutes later Thel had been very glad for the EVA suits his crew had on as the Phantom acquired a new hole in the side and the burnt, battered but still tough plates were nearly sucked into vacuum before emergency force fields nabbed them back. They had been delivered to the labs by Thel himself, in a containment field just in case they self-destructed again. They had not, though the technician who'd first inspected them had to treat himself for a wrenched mandible after seeing them, such was his shock. Now, back to the business and nasty situation at hand…

"This is unprecedented… Unacceptable." Rtas growled, shaking his head.

"A Hierarch is dead, Commander." Truth said.

"His murderers were within our grasp. If you had not withdrawn our Phantoms—" Rtas began.

The militarily incompetent Truth spoke again, making Thel almost bristle indignantly "Are you questioning my decision?"

_Yes, of course he is you blundering fool!_ Thel thought viciously, as Rtas answered deferentially "No, Holy One! I only wish to express my concern that the Brutes—"

Truth held a hand up for silence, and so Rtas fell silent. "Re-commissioning the guard was a radical step. But recent events have made it abundantly clear that the Elites can no longer guarantee our safety."

Rtas bowed his head "I shall relay your… decision… to the Council." He bowed and left, nodding to Thel with his mandibles as he walked by the Arbiter.

Truth sighed and rubbed at his forehead "Politics…How tiresome. Do you know, Arbiter, the Elites have threatened to resign? To quit the High Council? Because of this… exchange of hats?"

"_We_ have always been your protectors." Thel stated simply, hoping it could get through the idiot's thick skull, though he was wondering if there was some sort of trans-dimensional storage space inside Truth's head since the required thickness for this sort of idiocy exceeded Truth's head size, and that was just one layer of thick skull he was talking about.

"These are trying times, for all of us." Truth sighed again.

Mercy chipped in "The loss of one of the Sacred Rings wracked our hearts with grief."

"Putting aside our sorrow, we renewed our faith in the prophecy that other rings would be found. And see _how_ our faith has been rewarded." Truth showed the hologram of the second Halo to be found.

Mercy continued "Halo! Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are worthy along the path to salvation."

_I wouldn't be so sure about that, Prophets, maybe you translated something wrong or you just didn't know, but I'm quite sure the Oracle… no, Monitor told us something about Halo being a superweapon of colossal power and a supreme hazard to all creation._ Thel thought venomously before Truth continued "But how to start this process? For ages, we searched for one who might unlock the secrets of the ring. An Oracle. And with your help, we found it."

"With appropriate humility, we plied the Oracle with questions. And it, with clarity and grace, has shown us…the key." Mercy spoke, showing a… device of some sort as a hologram beside the Monitor, which was, to Thel, obviously trapped in a gravity beam. _Humility indeed, blundering fools…_ The Arbiter was almost tempted to shake his head in derision or snort, but refrained.

"You will journey to the surface of the ring, and retrieve this Sacred Icon. With it, we shall fulfill our promise." Truth ordered. Thel gritted his teeth _Yeah, more like destroy it at the earliest opportunity…_ He thought. _If Halo's as dangerous as the Monitor said, it must never fire… I hope the thing can get the point through to the Prophets before I have to openly drive my plasma sword through that Sacred Icon, whatever the Monitor might call it._

"Salvation for all!" Mercy cried piously.

Truth nodded to his compatriot "And begin the Great Journey." Thel almost wanted to roll his eyes at that.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"Once the shield is down, we'll head straight to the Library. I do not wish to keep the Hierarchs waiting." Tartarus instructed.

"The human who killed the Prophet of Regret… Who was it?" Thel asked, ignoring Tartarus' comment in favour of gleaning more battlefield intel.

Tartarus snorted almost tiredly "Who do you think? The leader of the crew at Sigma Octanus IV, and countless other battles against us, son of the infinitely accursed Division Commander Hannah Shepard, mate to that absurdly powerful female psychic who wreaks absolute havoc every time she shows up… ring a bell?"

"The Demon is here!"

Tartarus snorted derisively as if he had been questioning Thel's intelligence "Why? Looking for a little payback?"

"Retrieving the Icon is my only concern." Thel replied. _I do NOT want to get my ass shot off before I can spit at Truth's face when we lose the war and yell "I TOLD YOU SO!" as we get dragged off in manacles._

Tartarus laughed sceptically "Of course." He turned back to the Dropship cockpit to supervise the pilots as they came close to the Sentinel Wall and landed on, well, a landing. "You get off here, Arbiter… we'll give you what cover fire we can. Lower the shield, Arbiter, I'll pick you up when you're done, and suppress any targets I can get from up here." Thel nodded to the Brute before jumping.

"You Brutes always find the nicest LZ-s…" Thel growled as he landed almost directly in front of a towering Sentinel Enforcer which began charging its beam weapons, giving him just enough time to dive out of the way.

Thankfully, Tartarus decided to not be a (total) ass about things and fired on the Enforcer's rear with his plasma turret in a sustained burst, blowing the right-back leg off with less effort than it took to take down the average Coalition Marine's over-shield. Thel chuckled, it really said something about how tough the Coalition soldiers were… though what was really freaky was the sheer SIZE of the war machines they deployed on land. He'd heard of Covenant troops accidentally believing a "Fatboy" as the label on the side (that a survivor saw while he was running like hell) proclaimed to be a small plateau and building an encampment atop one. They'd found the giant vehicle rolling off into the sea at an alarming speed and drowning nearly all the Covenant soldiers before re-emerging onto land and shelling the survivors while they floundered in the water. Needless to say, Covenant soldiers always checked plateaus they camped on for even vaguely regular shapes nowadays, though to be fair the Fatboy had been using active camouflage and structural field projections to look natural and support weight on the outcroppings of the "rocks"…

Thel, thoroughly sobered, proceeded along the path he had to take, seeing some Constructors repairing an entrance just before he was accosted by Sentinels. Thanks to the moment it took for the drones to charge their beams and his dual Plasma Rifles, he rolled out of the way, shooting a Sentinel down in to time it took for him to hide behind a large container. The drones would come around, but he had a moment to get up and fire over his cover. _Thankfully there aren't too many of the drones…_

BEEP!

The doors he hadn't noted before opened in the walls and released more Sentinels with a noise that was far too cheerful. _I just had to think that…_ Thel reprimanded himself as he noted the locations of the Sentinel Launchers and threw plasma grenades at them, the same extra grenades he'd scooped off the ground. Fortunately the launchers were destroyed by the grenades, and Thel managed to with some difficulty (ducked several times behind cover) to swat down the remaining Sentinels.

In the first room, Thel encountered several Unggoy who cheered as they hid behind crates from the Sentinels on the other side of the room "Arbiter! Our Saviour!" They cheered as Thel took out the Sentinels on the other side of the room with the Carbine and Needle Rifle he's acquired. Since the Arbiter Armour only had two hang-points for weapons, counting his sword, he'd attached ropes to his gear to sling around his chest like he'd seen Coalition troops do. "Stupid Kig-Yar, say thank you!" They scolded the lone Kig-Yar in the room, who'd been cowering behind his shield. "If hungry, eat Kig-Yar!" They suggested. Thel snorted and shook his head derisively before motioning for the Unggoy and lone Kig-Yar to follow him as the motley crew trooped into the next room.

"You're getting close to one of the shield generators. Many of my Brutes have fallen attempting to take it down. Let's see if you fare better." Thel wasn't surprised, Brutes may be berserk-prone and powerful creatures but without energy shields, they were not effective. For example, a Coalition soldier's laser bolt or gauss round or whatever the plasma-ish things they sometimes fired were would dissipate, at least the first shot, against an Elite's shield whereas a Brute would blow up like a grenade had gone off in its chest. Still, from the slashing wounds he could see on the fallen Jiralhanae around him, Thel figured that the Sentinel Beams were more scorching than truly slicing, so the Brutes had probably stood a better chance than they would have against, say, Coalition infantry.

Then again, not much in the Covenant infantry arsenal really stood much of a chance against Coalition infantry. Mgalekgolo could hold their own, unless the Coalition troops brought out those missile launchers, in which case… Thel noted the rapidly approaching friendly contact on his motion tracker moments before the Unggoy in question rounded a corner and ran into him, falling over and curling up on the ground "Big, scary thing! Run away! Please! Don't make me go back!"

Thel sighed, he'd always had a bit of a soft spot for Unggoy, perhaps because unlike everyone else other than Mgalekgolo and Sangheili, they would not resort to eating Covenant corpses for no reason when there were still supplies around. "Alright, you can stay here until I call you."

Two minutes and a rather large number of Sentinels later, Thel was finally at the Shield Generator, just in time for… "You've reached the power source, Arbiter." …stating the obvious. Thel and troops scatted in alarm as an Enforcer descended from above "It is useless to attack the Enforcer at the front, especially when its shields are up. Stay in the shadows, wait until it loses interest, then strike the beast when its back is turned."

"Fire only when its back is facing you!" Thel barked to his helpers, and so they did, using overcharged plasma pistol rounds to whittle away at the beast's thick plating before it whirled on them and began to burn away at their cover. Thel grabbed his plasma rifles again and began to fire, since Carbine and Needle Rifle rounds had too much risk of glancing off the plating.

It took the group a lot of work, and a few injuries (one Unggoy would probably have been hit and blown him and his fellows up had Thel not tackled him out of the way before he and his methane tank could get slashed in half) before the Enforcer toppled onto its side, two of its legs and hover pods blown out. It still slashed away at the crew before firing off a pair of missiles that forced Thel to duck into a hole in the floor and let them whiz by before shouting "Volley Grenades!" After a series of floor-shaking explosions, the Enforcer was finally down.

"You've reached the power source. Overload the locks holding it in place. Gunfire will do the job." Tartarus called over the comm. Thel facepalmed, typical of the Brute to be so obvious, and to think up such a stupid solution, how about he save ammo and… push the locks? It was simple enough… and non-violent enough that Brutes would not think of it immediately. "Release the power source… check, now find a way to remove it from its cradle."

Thel snorted derisively as he tapped the switch on the holo-panel clearly labelled "Release Power Core" after flicking open the two covers that covered it. It was much as 20th century nuclear silos had two covers over the Big Red (launch) Button (TM).

The door in front of him opened as the power core disengaged, the blue-green shield surrounding the Library disappearing rather abruptly before his eyes. Tartarus's Phantom Dropship came into view as the Brute Chieftain continued speaking "Our path to the Library's clear. I'll pick you up on the ledge ahead…" An Enforcer began to shoot at the Phantom, and the Dropship barely swerved in time to dodge the rockets the automaton fired at it. Thankfully, they were neither as guided nor as powerful as Coalition infantry missiles, and so they flew harmlessly by as Tartarus shouted curses over the comm. For once, Thel found it entirely appropriate to curse "Blasted machines! Make your own way through the wall, Arbiter!" Okay, so that might have been irritating…

The wave of Sentinels, Sentinel Majors and Flood Combat Forms that broke out of the containment area, still battling it out, was more than just irritating as it washed over Thel and his motley crew, seemingly ignoring them as they slugged it out. They had to hunker down in a trench and move forward that way as Sentinel Beams and Flood equipped with the same things, torn off destroyed Sentinels, traced overhead, lashing away at one another.

Sadly for the crew, some of the Flood got the bright idea of jumping into the trench, fortunately, an overcharged plasma pistol shot could blow one apart and a good slash with a plasma sword through the torso could rend one in half. The crew hacked their way through, losing two Grunts and the Jackal as they went, only three of six making their way out of the trench to the wall door. Thel now sported the Jackal's wrist shield emitter as well as the Beam Rifle that one of the Combat Forms he'd killed had carried. Well, okay, so the latter was strapped to his back on top of two of his weapons, but that was beside the point. Sporting six guns was not a usual occurrence, and so Thel decided to pass his Carbine to one Unggoy and a Plasma Rifle to another, because if the diminutive creatures could handle Fuel Rod Guns, then the guns wouldn't be a problem. After all, Unggoy had pretty good upper body strength and overall strength, though their legs slowed them down a bit.

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><p><em>Quarantine Zone, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

By the time they got through the wall's internal hallways and such, Thel had acquired a nasty bruise on one side of his face from being punched by a Flood Combat Form and the two Unggoy had each acquired some wrist shield emitters. For some reason, they were called One and Two, according to them. One was a bit older than Two, ergo the numbering. They had both been of the Fleet of Particular Justice, Retribution Detachment, before, and Thel told them that he'd never fought with finer Unggoy warriors.

Of course, One had then proudly informed him "Supreme Commander, you too should resort to this tactic." He was talking about how both of the stout sentients had strapped one shield emitter to their back, one to each arm, one to the top of their head and another to their abdomen (dialled down in radius so it didn't hinder them). Like a suit of armour, it protected everything except the backs of their legs, the insides of their dual-wielding weapon arms (plasma pistol in left hand, plasma rifle in right) and their eyes, more or less.

Thel had politely declined. He had been taunted by a Coalition commander once that his ships "moved slower than an arthritic tortoise." Having seen what a tortoise looked and moved like from the helmet-cams of his troops touring a captured zoo, he was thinking the Unggoy bore an acute resemblance to the slow creatures, and their movement speeds weren't helped, either.

Though of course the fact that Two had survived an Enforcer's missile hitting him almost in the head, though it popped his head and arm shield (he'd overlapped them to try to block the blast) attested to the tactics effectiveness. Sure, the Unggoy had been thrown into a wall and knocked out, but at least he hadn't been vaporized… That was why Thel was currently lighting up the area with two shields on his upper and lower back, one on his chest, and two on each leg (one facing forward at the knee, another on the thigh facing sideways), plus arm shields and one stuck to the back of his helmet, radius dialled down (density dialled up). The one on top of his head and the shoulder pauldron-like ones they'd fastened to him using bits of Sentinel wires didn't help his image either. He looked ridiculous, but it had come in more than useful when he'd been swarmed by Flood Combat Forms and thrown around by Enforcer missiles. It had let him last long enough to slap two plasma grenades into the underside of an Enforcer and kill it. That was what mattered.

As they marched out of the wall, lighting up the environment with the soft glow of the shields, Thel found himself momentarily wishing he had the invisible shields the Coalition used. Oh well, this protected him, and it wasn't like the enemy wouldn't have seen his weapons flashing anyways… A series of drop pods landed near him just in time for him to facepalm and groan in despair. He was never going to live this down was he?

The first Elite to emerge, N'tho Sraom, sighted Thel immediately and shouted greetings as he turned to survey his comrades "Forerunners be praised, the Arbiter! Wait…" He did a perfect double-take and Thel sighed, this would be a long campaign if he couldn't shut the other Sangheili up and prove the worth of his new arrangement. He'd be constantly hearing gossip about him behind his back at this rate… "Why are you equipped thus? And what are these… Unggoy?"

"Yeah, they're Unggoy, we set up this arrangement to survive going through the wall."

Kip, N'tho's friend, walked up beside the blue-armoured Spec Ops soldier "No doubt it helped handle the kinetic stresses."

Thel shook his head "Kip Whatever-your-last-name-is-pronounced, I enjoy a sense of humour, but this feels a bit too serious for checking the wall for an Arbiter-shaped hole and two Unggoy-shaped holes."

"The Arbiter is right, we must move… by the way, good to see you again, Supreme Commander." Usze reminded the crew before tossing the last part to Thel casually.

A few small waves of Flood accosted the crew, which had just doubled in size, but they were nothing for the Spec Ops squad. "This Quarantine Zone has been compromised, we must do what we can against the Flood. Our Commander has landed further in, let us join him." N'tho growled as he batted down a Flood Combat Form with a sharp swipe of his plasma sword.

"Rtas is here?" Thel asked, remembering that he shouldn't be surprised considering Rtas commanded the Retribution Detachment and the two Unggoy who'd survived were from there.

Kip nodded as he shot a Sentinel down at medium range "Yeah."

One bridge and one tunnel later, they reached the base the Sangheili in the area were operating from. "Thel! What are you doing here? And… what in the Forerunners' name are you wearing?"

"I'm going to get that a lot, eh?" Thel asked tiredly, facepalming.

"Well, duh."

"That's what I was afraid of…"

There was a series of screeches in the distance, and someone shouted in alarm as Shade Turrets began firing while other guns did the same "The Flood is upon us!"

"We must hold this camp until reinforcements arrive." Rtas growled as they ran for the walls of the camp.

Within the next few moments, One, Two and Thel proved the worth of their improvised armour system by dispatching a few Tank Forms that threatened to break down the wall. The two Unggoy, had been issued personal shield generators on Thel's orders, in case they were attacked by Infection Forms, as it was found the bulbous creatures popped on contact with personal shields. They rolled toward the Flood Pure Forms and left behind grenades and gunfire before rolling back to camp at high speed, using the rotation ability of the Jackal shields as wheels. They'd been designed to deflect penetrators to an extent and reduce shield damage (though it was dangerous to touch one as your arm would get wrenched from being thrown away), but had been re-commissioned for propulsion purposes with high effectiveness as the two shielded Grunts slammed into the gate and were quickly pulled inside, dazed from their daring attack but still swaying about on two feet instead of four. They got hearty slaps on the back and helping hands from the Sangheili defenders and thoughtful looks form the other Unggoy present, who were looking forlornly toward the crates of Jackal shields and noting the absence of Jackals in the camp.

The fact that Unggoy could naturally curl up into a ball and roll at high speed was probably what allowed the two to stand after their ordeal, Thel decided, the fact that they'd practiced when they were in the tunnels helped too. That was before he decided to be inventive himself, attaching his arm shields to his forearms instead of his wrists and expanding their radii, angling the shoulder pauldrons to act as tire guards as he went on all fours. "What are you doing, Arbiter?" Usze asked in surprise from her post right beside the Arbiter, who grinned, holding his plasma sword in an improvised one-handed grip as he folded up his legs.

"Watch and learn." Thel growled before hitting the activation button on the shield rotations, set to a good six hundred rotations per minute on all four "wheels" and throttled using his mandibles, where he'd stuck the controls.

He went tearing off the ramparts and landed among the horde of Flood, flattening a number of Infection Forms on impact and opening fire with dual plasma rifles. Though only two fingers held each, it was enough, Sangheili were, after all, strong, tough creatures, even without looking at the fact that he was using his body as the chassis for a rover-type vehicle.

As he neared a Tank form Thel pushed down with his arms, bringing his upper body off the ground far enough to slash the foul creature in half, sword in a two-finger grip, as he wheeled by, adjusting each wheel's speed with a mandible's flexing. He'd first done this sort of crazy off-road work when he was still a cadet, training after regular hours. Not even Orna and Rtas had known of it… well, okay, so they sort of did, but they'd informed him that he'd probably break his neck doing it. Projectiles went over, under, and all around him, some pinging off his shields but most simply missing as he cut a swath through the literal tide of Flood.

The next Tank Form he met fared little better as Thel used drift to slide by outside its grasp and casually tossed a pair of plasma grenades under it. Fortunately only part of the horde could try to target him at a time because he was low to the ground, and there was still a torrent of covering fire form the walls of the fortified camp. Thel's attack buggy tactic had lasted long enough, he figured, as his "Tire integrity" began to drop below fifty percent on his rear tires and his personal shields began taking some damage every once in a while. He also had to reload his Plasma Rifles' energy cells. So he noted a conveniently placed ramp sticking out of the ground some distance from the camp and rolled off into the distance before wheeling around and accelerating all four wheels to twelve hundred rotations per minute.

Fortunately, the few remaining Flood was smart enough to stay out of his way, and the ground was smooth decking as opposed to dirt and rock, and so Thel Vadam thrust his arms forward as he was about to clear the ramp, doing a mid-air back-flip before landing with a ground-shaking thud and roll to reduce damage to his knees as he landed on the ramparts, grinning widely, letting the four controllers he'd stuck on his mouth fall out. "Well, Rtas, I told you those rotating shields could be used for this sort of thing."

"That… was the craziest-ass thing I've seen in a LONG time." Rtas said after his remaining two mandibles finished gaping.

"Agreed" the two Spec Ops Unggoy present chorused, staring at their former Supreme Commander as if questioning his sanity, well, okay, the gaze WAS questioning Thel's sanity, but that was beside the point.

"Well it worked didn't it? We've beat them back for now… and I think I'm keeping this shield arrangement, works pretty nice, except this one." Thel grimaced before removing the Shield Emitter he'd used to literally cover his ass and pocketing it. "Not comfortable standing with that there."

Rtas' mandibles (and right eye) twitched several times before he spoke again "Right."

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><p>AN: Sangheili are physically QUITE resilient, as you can see. Attack Buggies have to be built tough after all.

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><p><em>Quarantine Zone, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"In the center of this zone is a Sacred Icon critical to the Great Journey. I must find it." Thel was saying, having deactivated all his extra shield emitters for the moment.

"We shall cut into the heart of this infestation, retrieve the Icon, and burn any Flood that stand in our way!" Rtas shouted to his troops. The assembled Sangheili and Unggoy troops (all having been dissuaded from Attack Buggy tactics once they'd been told that Thel had practiced for years and they'd be better off just using the extra shields for shielding) roared agreement. The Spec Ops Commander looked to Vadamee again "The parasite is not to be trifled with. I hope you know what you are doing."

"What do you think?" Thel asked

Rtas snorted "Yep, you know what you're doing. Want Usze, Kip and N'tho to go with you?"

"I'll be much faster on my own with One and Two, but three extra soldiers is always nice, up to six more guns… I'll take them."

"Alright, Kip, N'tho, Usze, you're working with the Arbiter and his two Unggoy." The three stepped forward and gathered about Thel.

The former Supreme Commander looked his former subordinates up and down before nodding "Alright, don't advance unless I instruct you to, cover my rear, if we encounter anything large and threatening, follow my orders to the letter. You know the drill, right?"

"Sir yes sir!" The three barked.

"Alright boys," Thel remembered that neither Kip nor N'tho had realized Usze was not male, if only because N'tho was so large and strong he rivalled quite a number of females in raw physical power. Thel was actually a bit bigger and stronger than the already quite large male, ergo why they tended to get a lot of mating proposals every season "let's move out."

"Enforcers! To the vehicles, we'll need their heavy guns… Onward to the Sacred Icon!" Someone cried in alarm as several Enforcers appeared in the door in the wall ahead.

Thel sighed and got on all four wheels again, using the slight gripping capability (originally designed to harm enemies when meeting a spinning shielding field) to stay still "One, Two, get onboard, we're going Assault Buggy Tactics. N'tho, Usze, Kip, catch up to me once you help these guys deal with their Enforcer problem, use Ghosts."

As One clamoured aboard and locked into position on his lower back with two belts that were supposed to hold a weapon in place, Two, who'd already taken the forward gunner position, astride Thel's shoulders, asked "What's the difference between Attack Buggy and Assault Buggy?"

Thel rolled into motion once he was sure his compatriots had secured themselves and the stare-off between the Enforcers and Covenant troops had started "Attack Buggies loop around and let their guns cool before looping back, attacking from the same general angles each time, Assault Buggies are APC-style, carry troops in and fights their way in, not raiding, invading."

The star-off was broken by the "Assault Buggy" that was Thel and his crew zooming by under an Enforcer and it blowing up from the four Plasma Grenades the Unggoy had thrown at its bottom as they passed under the tall hovering construct. The Covenant line fired on the Enforcers, which fired back, ignoring Thel, who'd already passed by. The Sangheili, his head up far enough to keep his eyes on the road, noticed the news et of incoming threats and threw himself into a sideways drift just in time to avoid getting slashed by a group of Sentinels that whizzed by over their heads before turning and beginning the pursuit.

"Oh no… oh no you…" One started as he fired back with his plasma rifle and pistol. Two chuckled and joined in the song they'd heard at a human store once "Sucker tired to play me" A pair of Sentinels went down as they fired, Thel ignoring them as his guns fired forward, left hand firing toward the right and right hand toward the left (so his own shots wouldn't hit his own shield-wheels) at the Flood Combat Forms ahead. "But ya never paid me! Never! Oh no you I'm a mercenary you ain't got a prayer, oh no you…"

"Shut up back there, I have a feeling you might have picked that song up form some human video game I don't even want to know about but can you not sing when sitting on my back?" Thel growled, the two Spec Ops Unggoy immediately fell silent, though they kept firing, Thel made a mental note of their performance and wondered why the two hadn't been promoted to Spec Ops Unggoy Commanders yet.

"What? The parasite controls our vehicles? No matter, they will die all the same." N'tho, Usze and Kip had finally gotten within yelling range on their Ghosts while more Ghost hover-bikes approached from ahead, Thel bucking slightly to throw off a pair of plasma rounds that travelled under him harmlessly before stabilizing enough to let Two get an accurate shot with his overcharged Plasma Pistol, blowing up a Ghost in one shot after weakening its armour with the Plasma Rifle. One was still busy shooting back at the Sentinels that buzzed around them, forcing the three other Sangheili on the field to drive erratically.

"Don't shoot the Sentinels if they're shooting at Flood!" Thel shouted as the Sentinels began switching targets and the mobile shootout aka glorified car chase continued. Thel had to watch out for attempts to run him over more than once, but the grunts that were providing extra firepower form atop his back were a great help, especially in shielding his flanks with their own added-on wrist shields when it became necessary, which was rarely. Normally, no Sangheili would let himself be found dead being the steed of two Unggoy but this plan of getting extra guns on himself without growing more arms or having a Sangheili sit on him was working so well that Thel, as always the practical male, didn't give a flying fuck… wait, no, that was worth a lot, actually, to the average male…

Then again he wasn't the average male, still, it applied, one way or another. They finished reducing the Ghosts to scrap and Thel decided to hop aboard Kip's Ghost for now, since he was the lightest of the three and thus most likely to have a vehicle able to take some extra weight. Of course, it was found that Kip had to move to Usze's vehicle, since N'tho and Thel were both too heavy ("You guys almost weigh as much as large females!" the smaller, normal-sized male had informed them) for a Ghost to take anything more than one of the Unggoy along with them. Even then the Unggoy had to ride effectively on their laps, not a pleasant experience, but whatever worked… Thel's shield discs had to recharge a bit after taking so much abuse after all.

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><p><em>Quarantine Zone, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

Several canyons of Flood later, the group finally received a little support… in the form of a rain of green lasers coming from the empty air and wiping the next canyon completely clean… other than the shredded flesh and rubble strewn through it. Only Coalition weaponry could have pulled something like that, and Thel was suddenly very glad they had been a bit slow to get into this canyon. Still, they quickly made it to the Gondola that would carry them across. Once across, a Phantom dropped a Wraith on the platform the gondola docked to and Rtas poked his head out from inside at the noise of another Gondola approaching "More humans? They must be after the Icon."

"The humans are already inside, Arbiter! After them! I'll watch the perimeter." Tartarus shouted over the comm.

Rtas frowned "Wait, how does that make sense?"

Thel snapped his fingers before running past Rtas into the Library "Their damned propulsion packs! The Gondola was automated and just to divert our attention! You all stay out here just in case!" He shouted over the comm.

Behind him, Rtas facepalmed in the tank, groaning. "How could I have forgotten?" He groused as he rigged up a remote control interface for the tank before hopping out and hiding. He had no desire of being a burning funeral pyre after all, even if it meant he could get off the same one or two shots he could from outside. The other Spec Ops soldiers did roughly the same things, minus the tank part.

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><p><em>Library, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

Miranda QP Packed over to the Index and grabbed it easily "Gotcha." just before it was wrenched out of her grasp by something, she turned and her yellow optics narrowed on her dark blue faceplate "Well hello ape, now, would you be so kind as to return my object or will you have to die first?"

"You expect me to return this, Human?" Tartarus, as his nametag proclaimed him, laughed just before he rose into the air and slammed down into the ground, still, he didn't let go of his hammer. Instead, he threw a type of grenade none of the crew had seen before, spiked and similar in appearance to a Covenant Antimatter Charge. The crew dove into cover, taking long enough for the Spike Grenade to go off and Tartarus to stash the Index into his armour.

"Mirala nab the leader, we need to get that index out of him even if I have to tear it out of his kidneys!" Garrus yelled as both sides opened fire, the leader of the Brutes wisely retreating for his fellows to take the heat and begin dying one by one. "Another wave of hostiles incoming! Active Camo and Passive Stealth everyone!" He yelled. Suddenly a surprised-looking Elite in weird armour burst in and Garrus gave the "Hold Fire" signal "Guys, deactivate stealth and camo, pretend to run away, then come back under camo to listen in." They did as they were told, boosting out of the doors before they could be caught, then coming back in, concealed from view.

Thel Vadamee cursed his luck, one of the human laser sniper bolts had burnt through his chest shield before a second tore his personal shield wide open and scorched a painful but not too dangerous hole in his side. How it could do that without blowing a chunk of his flesh off, he wasn't sure, what was really irritating though was the burning pain it caused despite more or less cauterizing most of the wound…

Tartarus turned to face Thel with a grin "We've driven off the humans, excellent work, Arbiter. The Hierarchs will be pleased."

Thel growled "The Icon…is my responsibility."

Tartarus snorted "_Was_ your responsibility. Now it is mine." Jedore would have slit his throat from behind but for Garrus's held-up hand stopping her.

Three Brutes aimed Brute shots at the Arbiter just before he engaged all his polychromatic shields "Do not think I cannot crush you incompetents in battle. Rtas, listen to and watch this feed, RIGHT THE HELL NOW!" He patched it through with a quick motion to his helmet of one hand.

Tartarus froze up for an instant before shaking it off, snarling and levelling his hammer at Thel "A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race. And I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Jiralhanae, will send you to it! Your attempt to warn them will only hasten their cleansing!"

Thel snorted as he watched the Brutes advance, the Sangheili's body ready to spring into motion at a moment's notice "When the Hierarchs learn of this, they will take your head!"

"_When_ they learn?" Tartarus nearly fell over laughing "Fool. They _ordered_ me to do it."

Thel growled and leapt into action, he knew the Prophets were incompetent, but not so… Just after dodging a melee swing form the wicked blades of a Brute Shot and slicing off the Brute's head with his plasma sword, letting the body fall as a Brute Shot grenade exploded against his wrist shield and the blades followed just in time to catch on his shoulder shield and slide off harmlessly. He was REALLY glad he'd gotten them now…

Unfortunately, the shields didn't help as he was rammed back by a gravity shock from Tartarus' gravity hammer, falling back off the platform's edge with a second shock before he could regain his footing. Shouting into his comm. for Rtas to warn the rest of the Sangheili about this treachery in the Covenant, Thel Vadamee kept falling, expecting to suddenly end as a sort of paste at the bottom of this… pit thing. Something in him blacked out as he suddenly decelerated. His last thought was _How the fuck…?_

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><p>Samara sighed as she held the passed-out Sangheili so he wouldn't die in the fall, it seemed the deceleration had been a bit too much for the poor male, still, his wounds were sealing up nicely under a bit of medi-gel (which Garrus had ordered administered)… "What are your instructions Hannah Shepard?" She asked the Division Commander over the comm.<p>

"From what we see and what's beginning to happen in space over Halo the Covenant is about to start a full-scale civil war, Vadamee's the best chance the Sangheili have of eventually coming out on top. Keep him safe… we're picking up a Gravemind tentacle coming toward your location, it doesn't appear to be the infestation type, any attempt at infestation must be stopped, but if it wants to talk, just be there and keep an eye on this Arbiter. I have a feeling he'll be very important to a future alliance with his race's side of the civil war. This is going to end the war a lot faster than I'd thought possible." Of course, that was because Covenant star maps weren't accurate enough for ACU blitzing, and recon hadn't worked out well so far.

"Understood." Samara replied before letting Thel down and backing off, disappearing with active camouflage and passive stealth into effectively nothingness. The crew watched as Thel was picked up by the tentacle and moved away toward the main body of the Gravemind, a significant distance away. The speed with which the tentacle moved wasn't slow, but today's Nydus Worms were a lot faster, yet another show of how the Flood's slower evolution made the Zerg stronger now as opposed to how the balance had swung when the Flood were first created.

Garrus's group had returned after an unsuccessful Phantom-hunt, having been met with several Banshees that bought the Phantom enough time to secure a Seraph squadron for support. "Division Commander, we could not secure the Icon, be advised that we will probably soon be fighting on the Covenant Holy City."

Hannah nodded grimly "Well then I think it's time to call in a few favours…"

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><p><em>Space Near Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

As soon as the video feed finished playing, sent from Rtas' comm. link, the Sangheili shipmasters in the fleet powered up shields and secondary weapons, though plasma projectors stayed cold. The Brutes, seeing their plan begin to fall apart, abruptly fired their primary weapons, and a number of Sangheili ships died before they could shoot back. But enough ships had their shields up for the fight, though still lopsided as the main fleets lost so far in the war were Sangheili-crewed, not be an immediate massacre.

The one thousand Coalition aerospace craft, seven hundred of which were bombers (T3 Strategic Bombers) that joined in the fight were initially targeted by both sides, but the moment the Sangheili realized they were only strafing Jiralhanae warships (and starfighters) they decided that the enemy of my enemy was my friend. The battle devolved into a psychopathic melee before the Sangheili received an order from Rtas on the ground "If the Coalition is only attacking Jiralhanae warships, lure them toward the ring, perhaps we can receive some fire support from the surface!"

When the tactic was attempted, the small detachment of Sangheili warships that tried it, coming close to the surface of the ring, somehow received a shield boost. This was because the Coalition had acquired Shield Battery technology from the Protoss (though of course the Sangheili had no idea of this minor technological exchange for an alliance for the upcoming Reaper War). Sure, engineers could feed power to a shield to accelerate regeneration, but it wasn't quite as efficient as a dedicated unit and structure pair was. The Jiralhanae vessels, on the other hand, were immolated by the steady pounding of Mavor, Scathis, Sonance and Salvation fire along with a large number of smaller guns firing upward at them. That sealed the deal, and the Sangheili ships immediately moved toward the ring, though still avoiding the central plane just in case it was a trick to get them into the paths of Beam Emitters. Pursuing Jiralhanae warships were the only ones attacked and destroyed while an uneasy peace sort of reigned, both battle fleets skirmishing with one another as they waited for something to tip the scales.

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><p>AN: Too lazy to come up with Unggoy names, besides, they thought the numbers made them sound cooler, come on, I can just see the Unggoy named One as a general leading an army of his fellow Unggoy, chewing on a Tychus Findlay EB Cigar and proudly announcing that this was the "Army of One". I should probably put that in during the Reaper War…

So far it appears this fic will end at Chapter 40, what do you guys say? And of course, it'll end with the Reapers plotting a new way to soften up the galaxy. The loss of I'd say over 60,000 Covenant warships (remember, in one big push alone they lost over 10,000 to even more staggering numbers of Coalition warships though the latter are easily replaceable) altogether in the Covenant War and Great Schism is a big blow to the combat potential of the galaxy… probably take about six months for the Coalition with all shipyards going full steam and multiplying to get that many ship equivalents online.

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	26. The Rift Widens

A/N: Ah, **douchiesnacks**, I believe I've answered it in the past: They enhanced everyone, but unfortunately certain Barr Body genes (condensed, mostly-inactive X chromosome, only in the nuclei of females under normal conditions) that were still expressed in Barr Body form were involved in the changes. The end result was that though men are still a lot tougher than today, women get a much larger boost and thus stand head and shoulders over men physically. As for how it holds true for Asari and Quarians too, I'm sure you've guessed by now (if you have, don't say it in a review yet, some people may not have quite gotten it yet).

Dear Anon Reader: We're all very glad the Coalition does not have much of a military budget for materials. It still pays the designers and testing technicians, and the crews, but the only reason money still exists is to prevent overindulgence and because agriculture still requires labour (to monitor the farm machines) as food cannot be lathed effectively. You can make a nanolathe do a repeating crystal structure for a ceramic armour plate with absurd ease, but all the complexity and inherent chaos of a piece of meat or wood is beyond it. You will at best get a brick of protein and a brick of compacted cellulose fibres. It's better to farm food and trees. Also, MAC Guns and ME guns will both melt/vaporize the round on impact with the sheer yield involved, even if the round shatters, that's an equal and opposite force in the direction of the trajectory, ergo shell integrity is basically moot. Note that in the barrel it undergoes equal acceleration, so integrity doesn't change anything.

I can see ONI being Cerberus's counterpart, therefore my opinion of them should be pretty clear to everyone. Cerberus has several divisions, conduct morally extinct experiments, needs to get their bases blown up regularly, turns on you regardless of whether you help them or not, acts "for the good of humanity", etc. Sound familiar? Oh, and of course, they have internal policing, ONI Section Zero. Section Two is covered by their propaganda groups, and Section Three, you guessed it, the Rachni experiments and such. I will no longer argue with anyone who tries to say otherwise, if you want a good look at what ONI would be without a war, look at Cerberus or perhaps even the Brotherhood of Nod… I might incorporate that element into my C&C fic… hmm. Anyhow, this exchange is over.

I didn't notice, but as of 12:00 AM June 16, 2011, my total word count of all my fanfics broke the Million Mark with 1,002,813 words. And to think that it was only the beginning of my 260th day of fanfiction writing… Thanks everyone for all the support you've given me as I went from a stumbling noob to a limping one, I promise to improve further as I write my way through the back-stories of many of my characters and into their futures as well.

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><p>Chapter 26: The Rift Widens<p>

_Library, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872_

"What are you?" John asked the creature as he watched his tank's wounds slowly heal and Gravemind's tentacle slowly being pushed out of the pock-marks by expanding armour and structural fields. Then he turned off the speakers for now "Looks like the Zerg Overmind used to… sounds about right for a Gravemind."

The giant mouth, unlike the Overmind's giant eyeball, opened into several parts almost like a Sangheili's would "I? I am a monument to all your sins." Another tentacle pulled a struggling Elite over, John recognizing him to be the Arbiter his mother had messaged him about. He activated the Blaze's external air cleansing fields to keep the Arbiter free of Flood Spores. After all, it was like the Zerg Virophage in effect, though it took many more spores to begin an infestation, as the Zerg had evolved far beyond what the Flood had become. Originally the Flood had been stronger, but with their slower evolution, well, the balance tipped…

John used the external holo-projector to talk to the Elite in question, keeping his personal paint job and logo combination in clear sight on the hologram "Relax. I'd rather not piss this thing off."

Thel started suddenly, leaning back somewhat instead of trying to wrench the creature's tentacle off, his shields simply refused to spin fast enough to throw the tentacle or even tear up its surface, and his sword was out of reach on his belt… "Demon!"

The Gravemind huffed before gesturing toward the tank that five of its tentacles were holding "This leader is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded." Then it gestured toward Thel "This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded." It turned Vadamee upside-down and rocked him from side to side.

"Kill me or release me, parasite. But do not waste my time with talk!" The Arbiter growled, if this was anyone else, he could always regurgitate on them, most people, when acid is splattered on their crotch, would let him go in surprise, he'd be shocked if this… thing even had a crotch. It was so frightening to some part of him that he was resorting to dirty humour to keep his mandibles from wringing themselves nervously, truly a bad sign…

Gravemind seemed to almost guffaw for a moment before it boomed menacingly "There is much talk. And I have listened. Through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen." It raised two tentacles, one wrapped around a red Monitor that reminded Shepard altogether too much of an Oculus drone (even the same damned colours…), and another merged with a half-carbonized husk.

Liara's avatar frowned deeply, looking at the piece of pseudo-charcoal "Didn't I vaporize… right, his throne's shield protected him enough that I only deep-fried him before we had to run for it."

"Greetings! I am 2401 Penitent Tangent. I am the Monitor of Installation 05." The red Monitor said happily.

"And I am the Prophet of Regret, Councillor most High… Hierarch of the Covenant!" The husk somehow hissed.

"Well, we can always use the Quantum Autoguns on both of them." John observed dryly.

Penitent Tangent reacted to the voice and his eye seemed to shift slightly to look at the now completely smooth green and white hull of the large tank sitting next to him "A Reclaimer? Here? At last! We have much to do. This facility must be activated if we are to control this outbreak!"

"Stay where you are! Nothing can be done until my sermon is complete!" Regret's husk hissed.

Thel snorted "And this was why the Covenant was slowly but surely losing the damned war…" John chuckled, he was beginning to like this guy, tactical genius, inventive use of those shields, if footage captured by a passing Restorer had been accurate, and a sense of sarcasm…

Penitent Tangent disagreed "Not true. This installation has a successful utilization record of 1.2 million simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on demand."

Crystal snorted from her place "The Senators were always idiots… so many simulations, what the fuck is the point?"

"Of all the objects our Lords left behind, there are none so _worthless_ as these Oracles! They know _nothing_ of the Great Journey!" Regret hissed louder, as if trying to yell despite being cooked meat on the inside, to the Arbiter.

"And _you_ know nothing about containment! You have demonstrated a complete disregard to even the most basic protocols!" Penitent Tangent replied crossly.

"This one's 'containment'… And this one's 'Great Journey'… are the same." Gravemind boomed ominously. He pointed at the Arbiter "Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish as they did before."

Thel was thinking about what the foul parasite was saying and how well it matched with Guilty Spark's words from before, perhaps he was right after all… "This thing is right. Halo is a weapon. Your Prophets are making a big mistake." The Demon told him.

"Your ignorance already destroyed one of the sacred rings, Demon. You shall not harm another." Thel snapped back, though he was only half-convinced. If the Halos were needed to contain the Flood, then they must be kept intact, but if they were where the Flood were living right now, then they must be destroyed… perhaps the latter was better after all.

"If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found." He gestured to the tank and then the soldier "You will search one likely spot, and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us...brothers."

John allowed the Quantum Teleportation grid of Halo to (barely) teleport the Blaze. It wasn't strong enough to get them through with the personal shield and over-shield up, ergo they were running on Fields alone for now, the shields having been stripped by an unstable EMP effect of the teleportation.

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, Near Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"We are, all of us, gravely concerned." Truth said as he spoke into a holographic camera "The release of the parasite was unexpected, unfortunate. But, there is no need to panic. In truth, this is a time to rejoice. A moment that all the Covenant should savour." He held up the Sacred Icon "For the Sacred Icon has been found. With it, our path is clear, our entry into the Divine Beyond guaranteed! The Great Journey is nigh… and nothing, not even the Flood, can stop it!"

A sudden crash and subtle vibration of the deck announced an absolutely gigantic, smoothly curved green and white object in the room that smashed through a deck before hovering back up and swivelling about. Fortunately for Truth, he'd been wise enough to do his broadcast from inside an elevator, which had promptly sunk through the floor of the giant square, protecting him and some of his guards.

Annoyingly for John Shepard at least there were a lot of other Covenant in the area and though the Quantum Autoguns blow huge crater s in the deck with every shot and fired really fast, they'd somehow managed to bring WRAITHS into the room, leading to a brief tank battle where the Blaze actually shockingly dropped below half-Health before the shields and over-shield popped back up and they ran over the last Wraith.

"Alright, how do we get down… right, that console and gravity lift… too small for the Blaze, oh well, since this tank can hover, it can do acrobatics, the Aeon just design their hardware that way, now let's see…" He tipped the blaze onto its end before opening fire directly downward, letting the tank move through the hole the Quantum Autoguns were forging ahead as it tunnelled down through the decks.

"Fear not, my brothers! The Sacred Icon is secure. It was Tartarus and his Brutes who took the Icon from the Flood, and for that they have our thanks." Truth boasted form a PA Speaker. John growled in irritation at that. "The Elites have failed to protect the Prophets, and in doing so, have put all our lives at risk. Let no warrior forget his oath, 'Thou, in faith, shall keep us safe, whilst we find the Path.'"

"I've got a fix on Truth from what your sensors have told us matched up with deep-penetration scans by Spooks I attached to the surface of High Charity, plus triangulation on his signal." Hannah told them over comms. "He's right outside the tower beneath you, keep blazing" The Division Commander snorted at the term "your way through"

"With my blessing, the Brutes now lead our fleets! They ask for your allegiance, and you shall give it." Truth was broadcasting now.

"The Covenant have been in-fighting for quite a while now, but some of the fleets that haven't taken sides yet… oh boy, they're drawing battle lines!" Hannah exclaimed. "We're getting reports of small-arms fire throughout both fleets, ships on both sides are turning on one another… damn it, if the Flood get off the Ring when the Covenant's like this…"

"Creatures of the Covenant! The path is broad, and we shall walk it side by side." Truth was saying.

"Multiple Phantoms and Spirits coming up from the surface, I'm not reading any Covenant life-signs!" Kelly's voice came over the link the crew of the Blaze had with the _Autumn_.

"Be glad! A reward for all your toil and all your sacrifices in the year at hand. At this moment, the Council is gathered on Halo, to see the Icon secured. There are those who said this day would never come. What have they to say now?" Truth kept on spewing his bullshit.

"Rise, my brothers! Cast down the Elites! Once the towers are clear, we'll drive them from the lower district." Rather evidently, the Brutes were attacking in a top-down strategy, and the Blaze dropped into the open air right at that moment. Interestingly, all hover units could technically fly, but it made them vulnerable to anti-air fire and they were so slow it wasn't worth it, other than scaling cliffs and the like.

And so John Shepard flew the Blaze through the atrium-like chamber, upside-down and with the guns levelled "up" as far as they would go, firing on any Brute concentrations he could see in the chaotic urban warfare raging below in this level of the city within High Charity.

"I have listened to the Oracle, and it confirmed our deepest hope. The Great Journey begins with Halo." Truth was still babbling "Who would doubt the Prophets? What have they foretold that has not come to pass?"

"The Elites are falling back to the Mausoleum. Fools! Their Arbiter can do nothing for them now!" Tartarus laughed maniacally over the comm. as John watched the Elites below regroup and head toward the Mausoleum in the distance, the armed crowd gathering mass with every step and waving thanks to the upside-down Hover Tank-turned-Gunship as it kept firing on any large groups of Brutes it could see, one shot per group, there were a lot of groups, and John soon stopped trying to track the infantry kill count of the Blaze.

"If we're going to catch Truth, we'll need to take a shortcut, straight through the Mausoleum. Look on the bright side: for now, they seem much more interested in killing each other." EDI told them over the uplink. "And the Elites seem to be friendly at the moment, we've called a ceasefire. They've agreed out of necessity."

"…This isn't good. I'm getting confirmed reports of Flood leaving the wreckage of the Phantoms and Spirits that crashed recently. Let's get the Index and find a way out of here, before things get really ugly!" Hannah shouted over the comm. "Why aren't you heading to Truth's nav-point?"

"Going now!" John called back as he gunned the tank to maximum speed, flying through the door, well, ramming through it, toward the coordinates where the Prophet was expected to be "Can you route a Gemini for star-side intercept?"

"Negative, negative! Covenant Corvettes have closed formation and the Seraph screen is too thick to penetrate, Strategic missiles aren't going to work, they'll be shot down before they can get further than Halo. We could destroy the installation right now but I doubt the Elites would miss the missiles with their own plasma projectors. They might be temporary allies but they still cling to their Ring!" Hannah replied urgently. "The Prophet seems to be heading somewhere else anyways…"

"Damn it, after him then!" John growled. "Are the crew and Arbiter at the Control Room?"

"Yes, they are, they're engaging the Brutes as we speak."

"Good."

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, Near Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"Put the Oracle in the left side Phantom." Tartarus growled.

"The hopes of all the Covenant rest on your shoulders, Chieftain." Truth stated as he knelt before the Hierarchs.

"My faith is strong. I will not fail." Tartarus stated clearly.

A wave of Infection Forms chose to appear at that point and rush the group of Covenant. The Brute Honour Guards managed to shoot or crush all but one… one that lodged itself on Mercy's throat, the Prophet wheezed and grabbed at his throat before falling off his throne, screaming in agony. Tartarus almost felt sorry for the Hierarch, now THAT was an inglorious way to die… he would have popped the Infection Form had Truth not spoken "Let him be." Tartarus whirled in shock at that. Truth looked to Mercy with a sort of smirk "The Great Journey waits for no one, brother…not even you." He boarded the Phantom and the Honour Guard Brutes followed immediately, but Tartarus chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, looking down at the sorry sight of Mercy. A glimmer of green and white in the distance, however, prompted him to vault into his Phantom and scram. There was no point getting his ass toasted before he could turn the key and begin the Great Journey, after all.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

Thel Vadamee landed, with all his gear intact, on a plateau overlooking the Control Room of this Halo. He looked around for threats, then gazed at it and the majestic ring crossing the evening sky before sighing and grabbing his weapons, activating all his many portable shields and preparing for battle. Suddenly, a disturbingly familiar female voice spoke from behind him, and he jumped in surprise before whirling, stepping away from the edge of the plateau and scanning for threats. "It does seem amazing that something so beautiful could be so deadly, no?" The voice laughed as Thel's eyes narrowed, searching… "You won't see us, but we were what kept you from falling to your death before Gravemind could get you and tell you what you needed to be told, our armours acting as pylons for the air filter field the Blaze directed at you were also why you are not yet infested. We shall not harm you, for it appears we have declared a cease-fire, even now, our engineers are assisting yours in repairing your warships. Alright, ground crew, deactivate Active camouflage and passive camo, he's a friend now."

Thel suddenly found himself surrounded by five soldiers, four of whom were female, judging by the mammary glands they sported, or at least the armour accommodations for them. One spoke in an old, wise tone "Come, we must do this quickly!" Samara told the Arbiter before leading the charge. Garrus had decided to let the Justicar do most of the commanding, since she was better at coordinating all types of attacks, including psychic ones. He was not very good at those.

"Weaklings!" A Brute roared from up ahead with the explosion of Brute Shot grenades and the sound of plasma rifle fire.

They came across a dying Elite, who reached for his grenades when he saw the Coalition troops but stopped upon seeing the Arbiter "The Brutes have betrayed us…" He gasped as his pain began to subside when one of the humans knelt on one knee next to him, doing something with a chest-projected holographic screen "the Councillors…" He removed his hand from the wound in his chest only to find it gone, he frowned and pressed his hand to his chest, feeling both hearts beating as normal "I could have sworn I'd been shot through one of them with a Carbine…" He muttered to himself as he got up and grabbed his own Carbine and Plasma Pistol, looking around at the five Coalition Marines uncertainly "Thanks for saving my life, I owe you."

"Don't mention it, it looks like with this Civil War starting we'll be friends for a while…" The one who healed him stated "Friends save friends, a bit of medi-gel and blood regeneration is a simple procedure, you're lucky it was a clean penetration though, guess Brutes are too stupid to use a Carbine at anything more than point-blank range, eh?"

"Agreed…" The group began walking, and the once-dying Elite asked the Arbiter curiously "So, Arbiter, how did you come to be working with humans?"

Thel Vadamee watched as the three sniping-capable soldiers in the group who'd saved him moved forward and silently nailed three Brutes through their heads with absurd ease "Long story short, the Brutes turned on us and so, seeing an opportunity, the Coalition Commander, Hannah Shepard, extended a cease-fire to the Fleet and is helping them hold the line against the Brute fleets even as we speak, the battle rages on near Halo and High Charity."

"A sad tale…" The Elite clacked his mandibles before picking up a dropped Energy Sword next to a corpse "Be at peace, Brother, and embark upon the Great Journey."

"Go see what's taking them so long!" A Brute growled around a corner just before the Coalition Marines seemed to share a look, then they tossed a grenade around said corner, with satisfying results.

As they reached the doors, they met their first familiar Elite, Kip "What's-his-last-name" as most called him. "By the Prophets… what have these Brutes done?" Kip shook his head as he helped kill a few more Brutes, the Coalition troops standing around to let the Sangheili get their vengeance in blood. "They have shed our brothers' blood…and for that, they must die! Wait, Arbiter, why are THEY" he gestured with his plasma sword at the five "Coalition soldiers" lounging around "with you?"

"We have a ceasefire with them, it is more important now that we stop the activation of this installation, and of course, Jiralhanae are free game, according to the latest communications, the alliances have been drawn mostly along race lines, Unggoy, Huragok and Mgalekgolo are siding with us, along with many San'Shyuum and a few of the more reasonable and friendly Jiralhanae, but the Kig-Yar and Drones, along with most of the San'Shyuum, are siding with the Covenant Loyalists, as they call themselves."

A number of drop pods landed in the canyon and the Coalition troops vanished from sight and sensors. Kip, who had been nodding, looked startled just for an instant "Wish we had cloaking that good…" The pods opened, to reveal Sangheili reinforcements "A Zealot! So much for a stealthy advance…"

"Nah, Orna's stealthier than most, though I must ask, why have you come here, brother? Should you not be leading the Fleet up above us?"

"With the cease-fire and most likely impending alliance, I handed some of the command over to Hannah Shepard. Lo and behold, she moved our ships around a bit and now they are all fully repaired, at least the salvageable ones. We've also received new supply crates full of weapons, and they have proven most useful for clearing out trespassers, of course, we're holding them at a safe distance just in case they blow up on us. It's a bit of an uneasy three-way standoff right now, but better to have aid than not. Besides, the Shipmasters are competent enough, most of the higher-ranked ones are survivors from Reach anyways, so they'll handle the fleet just fine, when we found out just how dangerous this Ring could be, it was a unanimous decision to send the one with the most skill and experiences with the Arbiter to help out. Ergo, me. These extra crates we had lying around full of Kig-Yar shields have come in really useful by the way…" Orna Fulsamee activated his extra disc shields at that.

"I think you're just telling me the other Shipmasters got tired of listening to you babble." Thel deadpanned as he walked past.

Orna chuckled and scratched his head "Heh, not quite… Hey! Save some for the rest of us!"

"Well be quicker about getting here!" Thel called from up ahead "Oh, Kip, fill them in on our new allies."

Kip turned to Orna as they ran into the building, slashing a not-quite-dead Brute a couple more times to make sure "Five Coalition Marines are supporting us."

Orna helmet-palmed and shook his head sadly "And I thought this was supposed to be fun… WHAT THE?" His mandibles gaped as he witnessed no less than five Brutes cowering behind bits of cover with three more dead on the ground and another having its eyes brutally removed by Spike Carbine blades, the weapon being wielded by a furious Two (distinguished by the Kig-Yar energy shields he sported) as he deflected the berserk Brute's bashes and blows with his shields while continuing to stab away at the foe he was sitting astride the neck of until the ape finally died. He turned with fire in his eyes toward One, who sported an obviously broken leg but was still pointing a Brute Shot at the five cowering Brutes.

"Which…" there was a hissing of a damaged breathing mask as the Unggoy gasped for breath. Contrary to popular belief, Oxygen was not poisonous to Unggoy, they simply could not metabolize it the way they could methane, though there were reports of Unggoy who could be acclimatized to breathing oxygen, it was generally considered too complicated and expensive to be worth it. One was breathing raggedly from a Spike Carbine wound through one shoulder, still leaking blood even with the now fluorescent turquoise gauze bandage strapped to it, while eh pointed the Brute Shot, wincing in pain whenever he moved it, at the five remaining Jiralhanae. "…of you is going… to try to attack… next? Who wants to die right… the fuck now?"

Five quiet shots from nowhere later all five Jiralhanae were thoroughly dead and One was severely shocked when his wounds began to seal on their own. A disembodied, gravely male voice spoke form nowhere "Deactivate camouflage, guys, we're all friends here now." One squeaked in fright as he saw the imposing Coalition Marine towering over him. "What's your name, Grunt?"

"My name is One, he's Two." One winced as he felt his leg straighten out somehow under a force field of some sort, almost like the snapped bones were putting themselves together.

"Well, you did a good job with those Brutes, now… your leg's fixed, a few more moments and we'll be really to move on… there." The female leaning over him in dark blue armour (Miranda) said kindly. One was a bit too shocked by the new allies to say much.

Te next room was more interesting, with a number of Brutes in defensive positions. Orna chuckled upon seeing them "Long have I waited for this!" He activated his Plasma Sword at that.

"Not all dead? Raise the alarms!" One Brute shouted.

"If you guys want to have fun, don't mind us, we'll just sit back and let you guys have fun." The leader of the Marines, the wise-sounding female, stated smoothly as the Elites roared agreement and charged, along with the two Spec Ops Grunts.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"Your plasma grenades are not so unlike our Sonance Grenades, but we use a resonance matrix instead of a simpler containment system, so we can cram a lot more plasma in, watch." One of the females, in green and white armour that seemed to be of the Medium type (Jedore) demonstrated by hurling a "Sonance Grenade" into the Jiralhanae camp they'd come to.

The tent walls of the camp, as the Brutes had not set up defensive fortification other than a few Shade turrets (now thoroughly wrecked) literally bulged outward as the ones nearer the blast were absolutely flattened. The screaming began then as flaming Brutes and Jackals tried to douse the flames by rolling around. They were silenced by a hail of the gauss weapon rounds the Coalition troopers used. "Interesting" Kip remarked dryly "So, are any of you the sort with those abilities we've been hearing reports of? Psychic stuff?"

In response, three of them raised their hands and sent off three rippling trails of shockwaves that seemed to explode in the air as it travelled away from them in a straight line, sending Brutes flying from behind cover and crates hurling into walls. "Does that answer your question?" The one female who didn't seem to have the powers—and was the only one dual-wielding assault weapons instead of single-wielding or dual light weapons—"asked" dryly. Needless to say, Kip nodded rather quickly.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

They blew their way through another camp, the snipers being eliminated before they could do more than graze the Coalition Marines' shield bubbles. Then the lead female gestured "If you want to have them to yourselves, feel free, if you want help, just give a call, we'll move in after five minutes, hope you can kill all of them in that time."

"An interesting challenge." Thel observed before grinning "Agreed, move out, Separatists!"

The problem encountered at the far end of the base was that though they'd gone maniacal in driving Ghosts over the enemy Kig-Yar and in Thel's case Attack Buggy-ing them, they couldn't take Wraith fire and barely all got out alive. Of course, a few wounds had to be treated for, but with the Coalition Marines around that was a few seconds' worth of work. What didn't shape up to be was the rumbling of the Wraith tanks that rammed through the nearest group of tents toward them.

"Separatists, take cover, we've got this." The leader growled before flaring blue just like the two other psychic-capable females, the three Wraiths suddenly found themselves hanging upside-down high in the air, then were reunited with the ground in a series of loud smashes. The non-psychic female fed each wrecked tank a missile for good measure while the male picked off any stragglers that had been missed in the fast-attack raid with his rifle, which had extended to a longer, sniper configuration and was wielded with deadly efficiency.

A few more Elite-filled drop pods landed, prompting another round of explanation from the Arbiter before the sudden stand-off ended with the new Sangheili group joining the lance. SOMEHOW the Coalition Marines produced a large number of what they termed SMGs to distribute, more than they should have been able to carry… Thel voiced that in the form of "Where did you get all those from?"

"Before anyone tries to crack a joke no it's NOT from up our asses." The male growled, prompting some chuckles before he continued "We've got Quantum Storage Spaces, in other words, we expand the space inside our inventories and have it unaffected by gravity, that's how we cram so many things at once, of course, if the fields shut down, the items will be ejected, most of them, hence the term 'equipment diarrhea' is used to refer to any Marine who is dumb enough to turn the fields off when he has stuff in there and does not heed the warning."

"Interesting…" Thel said thoughtfully.

Orna, to the Arbiter's left, was a lot more direct "I gotta get me one of those things…"

The leading female shrugged "Maybe if we're conducting joint ops we'll get authorization to give you some equipment." They progressed gradually through the building, chewing up Brute, Jackal and Drone forces on the way (the last group received nasty surprises from a Flak-type weapon the Coalition troops had that also slowed their movement). When they exited the building, a Wraith rolled up slowly and the hatch popped open to reveal a half-jawed Elite.

"By the rings, Arbiter! The Councillors! Are they—" Rtas Vadum started.

Thel's head drooped slightly "Most are murdered… by the Brutes."

"Vile, insolent beasts! The Prophets were fools to trust them!" Vadum growled before they saw Phantoms zip overhead, stopping above the platform of the Control Room. A Brute landed from the gravity lift with a glowing orb.

"Tartarus and Guilty Spark…" Thel growled. "We need to get up there… there's got to be something up there. What is that place?"

Rtas sighed "Where the Councillors were meant to watch the consecration of the Icon, the start of the Great Journey."

Hannah Shepard's once-hated voice came over the comm. at that moment "I have a way to break down those doors, it should be landing right about… now." A thunderous crash rang out behind them before the crew turned to see a gigantic black hull with six towering legs. "Behold, a Salem Tier 2 Destroyer, delivered by Continental Express, enjoy."

The ship lifted itself up from the indent it had made in the ground upon landing, revealing a significant amount of crushed vegetation and some sort of chin gun, in addition to the large two-gun turret the group had already seen at its front. "Well, guys, how do we get on board?" Thel asked rather eagerly, though inside he was wondering just what was inside the walking ship, because that was what it looked like, and who the hell had come up with the legs in the design, or put them in afterward.

* * *

><p>On High Charity, in John Shepard's armour, a portion of Crystal's mind "sneezed".<p>

* * *

><p>"We can boost… oh, right, uh, Division Commander? Would you mind giving us a way up?"<p>

"No problem, one boarding ramp coming out." Said ramp extended out of the bow of the ship and led them to an airlock. "Wait, I'm picking up more Sangheili signatures nearby, Arbiter, go rescue them first, from the EMP 'Grenades' my Medusa T1 Mobile Light Artilleries have been lobbing around, it will be some time before the Control Room is capable of anything."

"Right, is this thing still going to be here when we come back?"

Hannah sighed "You want me to be blunter in my wording then listen up, you don't like me, I sure as hell don't like you, but if we don't do something, Mr. Mohawk's gonna activate this ring and we're all gonna die, or I'll have to blow it up with Strategic Missiles and your friends in the fleet are being obstinate about letting missiles their space, so since this Tartarus dude locked himself into the Control Room, I just happen to have a key. Now, that complex I'm picking up Elites in, I've plotted a path and uploaded it to your HUD" on cue, nav-points appeared with a line connecting them and one line from Thel's location to the first nav-point "Go through and save them, then meet the Salem up near the ledge up there, get there quickly to hitch a ride."

* * *

><p>AN: I explained this earlier (when explaining how they had Salems and Sirens around the Cartographer Island on Halo One): One surface naval unit, T1 or T2, or 2 Submarines (T1 or T2) can be carried by a Continental at once after the necessary funds are expended (upgraded naval units take longer to build and cost more mass and energy). So don't ask about how it's possible.

BTW: I'm not bad enough of a writer to just TELL you guys what the Prophecy is! I have to SHOW you for maximum effect… and for the largest possible diplomatic incident in the history of the galaxy.

REVIEW!


	27. To Kill A Halo

A/N: I know, To Kill A Mockingbird…

Mastermind4892: The sneeze from Crystal last chapter was the Commander T'Soni part of her.

* * *

><p>Chapter 27: To Kill A Halo<p>

_High Charity, Near Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872_

John growled in frustration as he opened fire… and missed. Well, not entirely, the Quantum Autoguns still clipped the shields of the Phantoms as they fled and swatted one down, but the signatures of the Monitor and the Icon were in two of the others, and Truth's signature was long gone, damn it, maybe he shouldn't have taken so much time blowing up hordes of Brutes… He jumped down from the Blaze and landed in front of the dying Prophet of Mercy "Your pal. Where's he going?"

"Earth… to finish what we started, and this time, none of you…will be left behind…" Mercy gasped out. John simply snapped his fingers and the Blaze relinquished one bolt that left a melted crater where Mercy's seat had once been plus a long streak of excess energy expended against the decking in the direction the bolt would have gone in. John only paid a chunk of his own over-shield in compensation for vaporizing the nut-head.

"Truth's signature is headed straight for the Keyship in the center of the city!" Crystal suddenly blurted, recognizing the signature accurately now. "If he leads the Covenant fleet to Earth, they won't stand a chance. You have to stop him!"

"The Brute had the Index and the Monitor, he can technically force an activation of the ring."

Crystal sank a little "…yes, the Senators did demand that the rings after Oh-Four be able to be activated by other races… just in case a Flood outbreak got out of hand and no Reclaimers or Forerunners were available or around… Don't worry, if he tries, even if the missiles don't work out, I'm sure my new self will have enough power, even channelled through a Hallucination, to overload the reactors of High Charity and destroy the ring, not original, but it'll work. You won't want to chance a remote detonation though, Liara's Hallucination will have to stay aboard the city-ship."

"That means we need to get the Elites to come around and be fine with us firing strategic missiles around the ring real fast." John growled.

"You're right, but don't worry, after we're on our merry way with the Ring shattered we can just dissipate the Hallucination here and re-summon it somewhere else, right Liara?" Crystal asked.

The image of the Asari in her human past form nodded, her brown hair swishing just a bit "Right, Crystal."

"Then _alles gut_, is it not?" The Crystal asked John triumphantly.

John sighed "I guess so."

More Dropships filled with Flood began landing all over High Charity even as many went down in flames and breaking up with the weapons of the Blaze hard at work. EDI reported to them over the comm. "Flood controlled Dropships are touching down all over the city! That creature beneath the Library, that Gravemind, used us. We were just a diversion. The Dropships were always its intended vectors. There's a conduit connecting this tower to the Keyship. Head up the side, the nav-points will lead you to it." The Blaze began taking the vertical climb up the side of the tower while Liara's avatar stood on the top of the tank, well, technically the front bumper, as it moved smoothly up the structure's outside hull. "I'm disabling all the lifts in the tower, that'll slow them down… I hope."

AS the crew reached the top of this tier in the tank Liara hopped off (more like a giant leap) and Truth began blaring form a loudspeaker "Shall we let the Flood consume our holy city? Turn High Charity into another of their wretched hives? No enemy has ever withstood our might, the Flood too shall fail."

Crystal offered something as she reached out to the computer systems "I'll do what I can to slow the launch sequence, but there's something inside the ship…a presence that's fighting back. For a Covenant construct, it's unusually formidable… Mendicant Bias!" Her image's eyes widened in shock "What are you DOING here?" After a brief but unseen exchange the sort-of-hologram's expression turned into a furious snarl "Oh I see, you want to repent, huh? Well listen here Mendicant, that ship is not to get off this station without us on it, you hear me? We'll be leaving my current lifetime's avatar here to… do you have access to High Charity's reactors?" A pause before the hologram's eyes squeezed shut for a moment in anger "Damn it, Liara, your avatar will have to stay here briefly after all. Hold on, Mendicant, wait until we are onboard before letting the Keyship launch… what do you mean you're cut off from the reactors? Well can you at least turn off all the lights down in engineering and strobe them to disrupt Covenant activity? Good, see to it that that ship does not get off the city before we're on it! If you really want to repent, Mendicant, then do it." She took a deep breath before explaining "He was a Contender-class AI, the most advanced we had when he was created, eventually he turned on us and we had to sort of destroy him, it was only a fragment of his personality matrix working there, but it worked nonetheless, he couldn't do anything at the time. Now it seems he wants to make amends, I say we let him, it's our best shot of ensuring that Keyship doesn't get off High Charity too soon… how close are we?"

John looked from where he was watching the tank sweep its own path clear of anything that wasn't Covenant Separatist (flying over the heads of those) "Very, hear those broadcasts?"

"The parasite did not defeat the Forerunners…and it shall not defeat us." Truth announced.

Crystal snorted "Partly true, but only partly."

"Arrogant creature! Your death will be instantaneous, while we shall suffer the progress of infinitude!" Gravemind called back through its minions.

"Whosoever is gripped by fear, take heed. I am the Prophet of Truth… and I am not afraid. Noble Mercy is here at my side, his wise counsel ever in my ears." Truth lied next as they neared the Keyship's Energy Bridge or whatever it was.

"We exist together, now… two corpses, in one grave." Gravemind boomed ominously.

"I think he assimilated someone he thought was Mercy…" John stated simply.

Crystal began talking in what was definitely not her normal voice, it seemed like a hundred voices whispered in the background of her words as if a shadowy echo of their intent, like a hundred lost souls or fragments thereof speaking as one… "You know, I wished back then that I and my version of you could have been together, two corpses, in one grave, but the universe is a cruel, bitter place, and it was not to be…"

"This crisis will not be the end of us. It is but one last hurdle before the journey and salvation!" Truth blared before the Blaze came to the end of the energy conduit that would take them into the Keyship.

Liara's avatar hopped off after sharing one last embrace with her Shepard. "I'll see you soon, John, as soon as this ring is done getting blown up."

He nodded simply "Alright, Liara, stay safe, get out as soon as you can."

Liara nodded back "Finish him, John, finish Truth."

As they sped through the conduit, Crystal was babbling excitedly "I knew the Covenant was good at re-purposing our technology, but this is amazing… They've been using the Keyship's engines as an energy source for the city. The ship isn't so much launching as it is disengaging; uncoupling itself from High Charity's power grid… Stopping Truth, that's all that matters!"

"Now is the time of our un-world-ing, in a moment we shall all become…as gods." Truth rambled "If you will falter, know this…one final effort is all that remains."

_I'll see you soon Liara… love you._ John thought to his mate as he looked back, away from the looming shadow of the towering Keyship.

_Love you too John, kill Truth and end this war for me._ He got back in her usual, soothing voice.

_I will, and after I'm through with Truth…_ John was abruptly cut off.

_Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it. We all know you'll just want to sleep for a whole day before we do any "celebrating"._ John blushed at that message and Liara's fading laughter.

* * *

><p><em>Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"The Arbiter? I thought he was dead! Hold your fire. The Hunters have come to our aid, Arbiter. They will stand by our side." N'tho Sraom and Usze Taham gestured to the two Mgalekgolo currently with the two.

"Greetings, noble warriors, and know that we have new allies as well, it appears the Prophets' treachery is such that even the Coalition is willing to put aside all the injustices we have piled upon them to aid us in this noble fight." Thel explained rather eloquently, the worm colonies nodding before Thel motioned for the Coalition soldiers with them to de-cloak.

"This is a surprise, but it is good to see that even the Coalition feels we have been used unjustly." Usze stated as the four new soldiers fell in line in the by now rather large troop.

Thel, One, Two, Orna and Rtas (now both similarly decked in extra shield emitters) did most of the fighting while the Coalition soldiers picked off snipers with absurd ease. Rtas shouted a challenge when he saw two Councillors and two Mgalekgolo held in force fields in the next room after the long, enemy-ridden hallway. "Free our brothers! Death to the Brutes!" The Coalition troops led the charge into a hail of heavy weapons fire, to protect the Separatists from taking damage they couldn't handle (well, the Hunters could…). They were immediately targeted by Fuel Rod Gun shots that splattered harmlessly on their shields and were absorbed.

There was only one thing with the Councillors that proved troublesome: Getting them to wear "less conspicuous" head-gear. One of the Councillors was frowning at the modified helmet and his Councillor helmet "I fail to see how a GLOWING disc on my head is less conspicuous than this, at least this helmet crest does not actively give off light!" he argued while the other simply put on an Assault Helmet on without complaint and put the Jackal Energy Shield emitter on top with some sturdy straps. Then the non-complainer jammed another identical helmet down on the complaining but helmet-less male's head and growled "There, brother, now please shut up and let's get going."

Needless to say, the helmets were still used… as additional plating for the males' backs. That proved slightly necessary as they were walked into once they stopped at the top-side exit of the complex, craning their heads up to look at the top of the legged ship in front of them. It sported the standard black and red Cybran paint-job, though with the Personal and Over-Shield upgrades installed along with some others (namely a tougher AA system).

Two Banshees arrived, seeing the FRIENDLY transponder on the Salem and the Arbiter's transponder, along with knowing of the cease-fire, prompted them to land right beneath the long, quad-linked barrels of the Electron Flak turret. It was an upgrade that was much better than the normal Salem AA gun, but regardless of that, the Elite pilots jumped off to join the crew standing around on the deck as the Salem walked off toward the Control room door, only faint vibrations in the view and its moving backward telling the crew they were even moving, as the Salem had its own inertia/gravitation regulators much like all Coalition units. "My Banshee's always available, Arbiter."

Hannah's giant hologram on the deck shook its head "We don't need it to clear the air, in fact, it'll more likely be involved in friendly fire… Ha! How do YOU like it?" She cried as the Proton Cannons opened fire and blew up Wraiths with absurd ease at long range. As the Destroyer lumbered toward the Control Room she called to the Elites now firing over the edge of the Salem's deck, using the relatively small railing "Stay clear of the edges of the deck. Hey, bastards, knock knock!"

They didn't quite realize what she was saying the first time, so she tried again "Are you trying to get killed? Give me some room!" She growled after that "Hey, Sangheili and Unggoy, and Marines, I'm talking to YOU! I'm gonna count to three. One... two... three! Don't say I didn't warn ya!"

"Move away from the railing, brothers, back toward center deck!" Rtas yelled.

"Take cover behind the turret, there may be some shrapnel incoming." Hannah advised before they all piled behind the Dual Proton Cannon turret and it fired nearly silently thanks to the sound dampening technology involved. The Control Room door went down after the second pair of shells detonated against it, predictable, some shrapnel pinged by.

The crew entered the Control Room by a boarding catwalk the Salem extended just to encounter some dumb Brutes "Do not let the Arbiter into the chamber! The Chieftain must complete his holy work—HURK!" The first Brute never finished as his own Spike Carbine came up and impaled him through the throat before slashing his head clean off.

* * *

><p><em>Control Room, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872<em>

"Come on, Monitor, why isn't it working?" Tartarus shoved the Index back in only to have it pop out again with a cheerful beep.

"Localized EMP bursts have rendered the controls temporarily inoperative, please use caution, the Index and consoles are delicate."

"One more word, Oracle, and I'll rip your eye from its socket!" Tartarus growled

An authoritative voice boomed in that moment "Tartarus, stop."

Tartarus gasped and recoiled slightly in sheer shock "Impossible!"

"Put down the Icon." Thel Vadam growled, his comrades, snarling, grunting and hissing, arrayed around and behind him.

"Put it down? And disobey the Hierarchs?" Tartarus asked in disbelief.

Thel nodded brusquely before explaining "There are things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not understand."

The Brutes backing Tartarus snarled and stepped forward menacingly before their Chieftain waved them to a halt. "Take care, Arbiter. What you say is heresy!"

"Is it?" Thel swivelled hi head to face 343 Guilty Spark and spoke gently "Oracle, what is Halo's purpose?"

"Well, collectively, the seven—" Guilty Spark began cheerfully.

Tartarus grabbed the Monitor and shook him around, growling "Not another word!"

"Please…" Garrus stated in his gravel-like voice "Don't shake the light bulb." He finished calmly, his LBR in Sniper Mode and levelled at Tartarus. The Brutes began advancing again "If you want to keep your brain inside your head, I'd tell those boys to chill." Tartarus gave a bark that caused the Brutes to back down a bit. Garrus tilted his head at Vadam "Go ahead. Do your thing."

"The Sacred Rings, what are they?" Thel asked the Monitor, almost afraid of the answer he would get…

"Weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunners to eliminate potential Flood hosts, thereby rendering the parasite harmless." Guilty Spark replied, cheerful as ever.

"And those who made the rings? What happened to the Forerunners?" Thel asked with some trepidation but more a determination to know the truth that had been hidden for so long.

"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings, they, and all additional sentient life within two radii of the galactic center, died, as planned." Guilty Spark was still rather disturbingly cheerful. Thel Vadam lowered his head sadly, as did the other Sangheili, in realization that there was no Great Journey, just a lie… all of it a lie… "Would you… like to see the relevant data?" Guilty Spark added hesitantly, eyeing the LBR Garrus was levelling warily.

Thel sighed, then looked at Tartarus again, not noticing the console with the Index was now blue, not green anymore "Tartarus, the Prophets have betrayed us."

Tartarus stiffened before throwing Guilty Spark at Garrus, making the Turian (none of the Covenant knew that) clad in UEF Heavy Armour bat the object aside. The Brute then grabbed the Index and shoved it in one last time. "No, Arbiter! The Great Journey has begun. And the Jiralhanae, _not the Sangheili_, shall be the Prophets' escort!" He grabbed his gravity hammer and his energy shield engaged, the main platform splitting into three portions as Halo began charging.

"Charging sequence initiated, primary generators coming online." Guilty Spark was as annoyingly cheerful as ever.

"Well, shut them down!" Miranda barked impatiently as she shoved a Brute off the platforms with her mind and saved a Sangheili from falling.

"Apology, protocol does not allow me to interfere with any aspect of this sequence."

"Then how do we stop it?" Jedore demanded as she pumped shot after shot into Tartarus's shields before running out of patience and beginning the multi-fire Overcharge thingy that she forgot the name of. The coolant cases extended out from the right side of her rifle one by one as she waited.

"Well, it will take some time to go over the proper procedures, I—"

Samara clubbed the annoying thing over the head with a swing of an armoured fist "Quit stalling!"

"Under more controlled circumstances, I would suggest we simply remove the Index." Guilty Spark finally came clean after another small casing dent.

Mirala shouted the response in surprise as she took down another Brute with a good Warp, tearing the ape apart "That's it? Garrus, I'm on it!" She boosted over to grab the Index, only missing by a little when she was jerked slightly by Tartarus's Gravity Hammer's field. That amped up, and soon Mirala was in a sort of reaching pose almost classical of anime characters, slowly moving forward despite the force pulling her back.

"Secondary generators charging. All systems are performing well within operational parameters."

"You're telling me that you cannot stop the sequence?" Miranda yelled.

"Reclaimer, please understand that interrupting the wave generation process will severely damage this installation."

"Give us a direct answer!" Mirala barked.

"I am but a Monitor. The Reclaimer can do as it likes. Firing sequence initiated. And may I say, Reclaimers, it has been a pleasure to serve you all. Goodbye."

"Fuck YOOOOUUUU!" Mirala screeched helplessly, of course, the Gravity Hammer stopping kind of made her crash into the Index and yank it out, but that was beside the point.

"Hey, Mohawk! How'd that feel?" Jedore taunted, having dropped Tartarus' shield AND deployed bubble shield with two shots on Overcharge before the last blew a large hole in the deck when the Brute rolled away, wincing from the scorch marks on his body from the second shot.

"A lucky hit, you shall not land another." Tartarus yelled even while his Brutes were being massacred by the Elites and even the two Grunts present.

"I can fire three bolts per second, Tartarus, even in sniper mode, don't test me." Jedore barked back, wondering where her allies were… she found out at a glance that Tartarus's gravity pulses meant three of the five Marines present were on "catch falling people" duty. It was regrettable that it was so, and Garrus was too busy sniping Jackal Snipers trying to infiltrate the room to do the Tartarus Job.

The room began to shake before the lights, many of them, cut out or dimmed seemingly automatically. "Mavors have destroyed building energy system, no harmful effects, intercepted the shot the Control Room fired with a Soul Ripper… which is gone now, but still, nothing bad happened." Hannah's voice said from Garrus's armour's speakers.

The Separatists and Coalition Marines roared in celebration before going back to battle with renewed vigour. Tartarus was last to fall to a surprise strike by Thel Vadam, again in Attack Buggy configuration, using a pair of overcharged plasma pistols to rupture the Brute's shields before tossing them away just as he fixed his right hand on the Plasma Sword and extended it before him, his left arm's Jackal shield coming up to meet Tartarus's hammer swing. The two large sentients met in a thunderous crash and time seemed to slow for an instant, the room seemingly darkening with the bright slash and flash that resulted from the impact. Garrus logged this as an example of "Anime Law of Dramatic Emphasis: Scenes involving extreme amounts of action are depicted with either still-frames or black screens with a slash of bright colour (usually red or white)". Here, the blue slash was the Plasma Sword, now embedded in Tartarus's head, the arm holding it half-limp but strengthening as Thel Vadam pulled himself up from the half-kneel he'd been forced into by the sheer force of the impact. He pocketed the ruined Energy Shield Generator as a souvenir, it had absorbed almost the entire force of the blow with the shield, then, when that collapsed, crumpled well enough that he'd only been forced to his knees, not gotten his arm snapped like a twig. Tartarus's body, still twitching, crumpled, the Fist of Rukt falling aside as Thel deactivated his energy sword.

"Amazing, Arbiter, though knowing you it was all in a day's work." Orna commented.

"What's that?" Thel asked, looking at a holographic depiction with plain Forerunner Basic writing saying "FIRING SEQUENCE TERMINATED".

"A beacon." Guilty Spark supplied, leading to snorts of derision form the Sangheili.

"What's it doing?" Miranda asked.

"Communicating, through Slipspace at superluminal speeds with a frequency of—"

"Communicating with WHAT?" Hannah demanded from Garrus's projected hologram.

Guilty Spark looked taken aback at that "The… other installations."

The Division Commander kept frowning, unperturbed "Show me."

"Fail-safe protocol: In the event of unexpected shutdown, the entire system will move to standby status. All remaining platforms are now ready for remote activation." Guilty Spark narrated, the seven rings, one red, showing up with the tag "DESTROYED" next to the red one, and another with a patch of sickly green and a tag saying "CONTAINMENT BREACH"

Hannah was quite alarmed "Remote activation? From here?"

Guilty Spark would have snorted if he could "Don't be ridiculous."

"Listen, light bulb, don't make me…" Jedore made several violent gestures before showing Spark the business end of her Sniper Mode LBR.

"Then where? Where would someone go to activate the other rings?" The Division Commander pressed.

Hannah suspected Guilty Spark would be gaping if he could "…Why, the Ark, of course."

"And where, Oracle, is that?" Thel Vadam asked politely.

"Scanning… Primary Portal located, about…" a large number of light-years showed up on the hologram, with a bearing "That way."

"That's either Earth or something very close." Hannah stated as she ran the calculation in her head.

"Ah yes, Earth, the home-world my creators never quite returned to… wait, no, some of them did go back home… once they made sure there would be no time paradox." Spark said.

"WHAT?" Everyone shouted almost as one.

"I'm afraid you will have to ask the Protoss Preservers of more information pertaining to the Forerunners, even they did not know their true origins very accurately, only that it involved time travel. Even then, the Protoss had to tell them about it." Guilty Spark stated plainly before looking around "Did I say something?"

"What are these Protoss Preservers?" Thel Vadam asked.

"The Protoss were an old race even in the time of the Forerunners, allied with us during the Reaper War. Of course, the Zerg were too. Those two Reaper creations lived in harmony after the Reaper War that occurred during their fighting. It's complicated and confused, only the Preservers can tell you everything… The Forerunners never quite sorted it all out." Spark stated. "Perhaps the Reclaimers have more information? Except for you, mister, you are not Reclaimer."

"What is the Oracle… no, Monitor, talking about?" Rtas questioned his friend.

Thel shrugged "So you guys got any answers for what he just told us?"

"He's right, I'm not Human, Asari or Quarian, I'm Turian, a member of a species not in the Coalition, I'm just fighting to help my friend, sort of brother, John Shepard, who you call the Demon, save the galaxy. We've pulled it off twice now, three if you count Halo." And so Garrus took off his helmet. "What are you all gaping at, you're not the only ones with mandibles you know…"

"Uh… right, okay… this is a pretty big revelation…" Orna replied.

"So do you know who the Protoss are?" Thel addressed Hannah's hologram now.

"They are one of the races that recently allied with us, a very old race, very long-lived. They've been at war with the Zerg for a long, long time, and it was only recently that they've managed to settle their differences. They were the firstborn of the Reapers, but from what they've told us rebelled. The second-born, the Zerg, did the same. From what our ship's resident friendly Zerg's told us, the Flood, third-born of the Reapers, were created after the Reapers beat the Zerg into submission, and used some Protoss DNA to maintain 'purity of form' or reduced mutations to keep it controllable, the Flood as a race are indoctrinated, slaves to the Reapers. If even a single Infection Form remains, they can continue to obey the Reapers' will. They were used to destroy the Forerunners with swarm tactics once the Reapers lost the Forerunner-Reaper War. By then the Zerg Overmind had also been indoctrinated and the Protoss had lost enough of their own to the Reapers to begin the Aeon of Strife." Hannah kept explaining "So the Forerunners didn't have crowd-control weapons and that was why they lost the Forerunner-Flood War. What's interesting is that the races cannot infect one another, and Halo doesn't work on Reaper creations, but we have an artefact the Forerunners created that works only on Reaper creations, apparently it was a prototype and there was no time to scale it up. I know it's a long and complicated history, but that's how it is. If I wasn't in it myself I'd have thought it dreamt up by some science-fiction author who spent too much time crossing wires."

Thel nodded "That is convoluted indeed, has the fleet okayed killing the Ring yet?" HE directed the last bit to Fleet communications.

"Yes, Arbiter, we are just evacuating remaining personnel now. The Division Commander has been most helpful, as her units are Flood-proof and very destructive, and of course fast and large." The current Fleet Commander replied.

Thel nodded sagely "Excellent, destroy the Ring, then contain High Charity while I head to Earth to finish this fight."

"Aye, Arbiter… Supreme Commander."

* * *

><p>AN: Yeah, I just said that my own history concoction is convoluted and difficult to follow.

REVIEW!


	28. Back to Earth

A/N: Covenant, meet the rest of the galaxy, sort of.

My internet broke down ergo this is late.

* * *

><p>Chapter 28: Back to Earth<p>

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, Second Halo Ring, January 24, 3872_

"This is Division Commander Hannah Shepard to Covenant Separatist Fleet. Missiles are firing, hope you can take care of any fragments that are large enough to shelter Flood, Hannah Shepard out." She spoke clearly into the comm. as the _Pillar of Autumn_ lifted off before accelerating much faster than any ship of its size typically would using its powerful engines. It soon entered Slipspace, as Quantum space always seemed rather… unstable near a Halo, and subspace wasn't as smooth as usual either. The only thing that seemed effectively unaffected was Slipspace.

"May the Gods aid you!" The fleet effectively collectively shouted back, Orna had been sent back to Fleet Command, though many of the others were still on-board.

"This ship… may I see what conveniences are where? Such as the washrooms? Extra methane tanks for the Grunts?" Thel Vadam asked the Sangheili most likely to be familiar with the vessel.

"Thel, give them a tour." Hannah called.

Vadam frowned before the communications officer, Thel Lodam, nodded "Yes ma'am, Arbiter, I am Thel Lodam, former Major Domo, it is an honour to meet you. I am glad to see that our kind has seen the light, but for all the lives lost…" Lodam shook his head sadly before leading the rather significant Covenant troop out of the bridge through the back door, not the side doors. "All of you will have quarters along this hallway, Unggoy rooms, these two for One and Two respectively, are filled with methane, no oxygen, so don't go into one without a breathing mask, and do NOT try to put oxygen in and strike a match!" Lodam growled the last part. "Each set of quarters is a private suite complete with bathroom and bedroom, with enough space to stash all the stuff you can possibly have on you. This deck's Mess Hall is here, in the far end of the second block. There are eight of these blocks per deck's length, a total of sixteen blocks plus the many suites lining the flanks, still many meters of armour plating away from the outside. Four of these luncheons are present per deck, there's the first pair here, the second pair is at the near end of the seventh block." Lodam instructed "We only have one Mess Hall running because we don't have that many people onboard, it's designed to seat up to five hundred people, but as you've probably seen the typical Coalition warship only has a crew a fraction of that size."

"Why build ship so big then?" One asked curiously.

"For evacuations, the ship can sustain literally hundreds of thousands of people without increasing engine output at all from standard silent running." Lodam explained "We got the idea after meeting the Quarian Migrant Fleet. It also provides the surface area and volume needed to hold easily dispensable starfighter wings and weapons mounts."

"What or who are these Quarians?" Vadam asked with some trepidation, it had taken a while to get over the Turian revelation with Garrus. Mordin had been fortunate he was in the habit of wearing armour everywhere because he'd nearly been clubbed in the head by a rather alarmed One when he'd bent down to examine the little Unggoy.

"They… seem to be another race of Reclaimers, as are the Asari. All three races are very similar. There's one Quarian in the ship's crew, but she's off on the old Keyship headed to Earth, trying to stop Truth. Heh, what a misnomer that one was…"

"Agreed…" Someone mumbled.

"Anyhow, there are still two Asari on the ship, let me introduce you." Lodam himself had literally jumped a meter in the air (and banged his head on the ceiling) when he'd realized there were far more alien species in existence than just the Coalition. In fact, he'd been told of a Citadel Council that held much of the galactic north and did not realize the Covenant existed.

Needless to say, after the initial shocks and such, the Arbiter's Gang (as they now termed themselves thanks to a careless joke by, obviously, Joker) were VERY satisfied with the housing arrangements. Though one thing about the new sleeping arrangements didn't go so well…

* * *

><p><em>Mess Hall, CSC Pillar of Autumn, January 24, 3872<em>

Usze Taham almost broke the door (one of many) down as she stormed inside just in time to see the "Closed" light turn on at the food counter. Having missed dinner, she decided to do the next best thing she could: Fall dramatically to her knees, throw her arms up and roar "NNOOOOOOOO!"

"Stop being such a drama king, you would have remembered if you'd set your alarm clock so you didn't over-sleep." Kip grumbled from his spot.

Usze rolled her eyes and got back up "Or maybe if N'tho the Living Alarm Clock was in my room I'd have woken up in time, but of course we have separate rooming arrangements…"

N'tho speared another of the curious human foods, sausages, he believed they were called, and grumbled back "And I'm glad for it, I don't want to get up from the bottom bunk only to have you fall down on me from the top bunk and nail me to the floor like a female would nail her mate down… again."

"Is that one always like that?" Mess Sergeant Gardner appeared, wiping his serving surface with a spotless towel, gesturing toward Usze, who was glaring at N'tho and Kip for interrupting her dramatic moment.

"Yeah, Usze, he's always been a bit of a drama king, but only when situations demand it." Kip replied from where he was trying to unstring celery from between his teeth (it did serve as floss though).

"He? Oh… well, I've got enough food left here for 'him'." Gardner stated brightly, bringing out a platter of leftovers, internally snickering. So Sangheili had cross-dressing too, hmm?

* * *

><p><em>Forerunner Keyship, Slipspace, January 24, 3872<em>

John snorted as he took cover from heavy weapons fire "Took them a while to find us even with the Blaze sitting in plain sight here in the bay."

"Keyship systems appear in quite… disrepair." Crystal commented "The Slipspace Drive will take us six days to reach Earth, not twelve hours as per normal."

James sighed as he used the armour's excrement-cleanup function to take a piss "Then I'm really glad they thought of EVERYTHING when they designed the armour."

"Agreed" Tali stated before popping up over her cover and unleashing a Phasic Shotgun round that crossed the chamber and detonated much like a Fuel Rod Gun round would, tearing away a Brute's shields… the Brutes had apparently acquired energy shielding just like the Elites had. Of course, the latter were now allies.

John swapped out his LBR for his Temporal Fizz Launcher. One of the largest benefits that came with being soldier class was that they were specially trained and equipped to dual-wield heavy and assault weapons (only one heavy could be powered at a time though, so it was one heavy, one assault or dual assault weapons). The half-combat classes (Vanguard and Infiltrator) could dual-wield one assault weapon and one light weapon. The others could only single-wield assault or dual-wield light weapons. The TFL was VERY useful for swatting down Drones by the droves as they were slowed down if not torn apart by the plasma and shockwave lashing and chronotron side-effect. Drones, when slowed down in time, were only too easy for APHE rounds of his Gauss LMG to tear through. The other soldiers were busy fighting back the Covenant ground forces. Jackals were especially annoying as their shields could take a sniper mode LBR hit before popping… and that meant the Brutes just had so much damned time (a full third of a second) to get closer with their Brute Shots and Spike Carbines.

The battle kept going in the Keyship, as it was jam-packed with Covenant, having been prepared already far earlier for launch. The crew would battle on for a full six days… Tali had to take a break by the third day of incessant combat, and they guarded her while she slept in full armour, moving her as they roved through the Keyship's engine rooms, worried about potential bomb-planting by the Covenant. She spent some hours on the fifth day sleeping as well. The twins didn't sleep, Cybrans could run solely on their cybernetics and give their brains rest and both were conditioned for ACU combat, which, believe it or not, could drag on for many days. And of course, Geth never really tired, only needed to let off heat and clean up their systems once in a while, but the armour took care of Legion's heating needs and such.

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, January 25, 3872<em>

A damaged door sparked spasmodically as it tried to close, before Gravemind's tentacles crept through and pried it open. "Silence fills the empty grave, now that I am gone." The entity rumbled "But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. I will ask, and _you_ will answer."

Liara winced as she once again tried to break through the psychic barrier that had slammed up around High Charity as soon as the missiles had been launched that would destroy Halo. The tentacles reached for her, and she jumped off her platform, floating across to an unoccupied piece of air-space in the cavernous room. _What will happen to me… when this avatar's energy runs out and I am still trapped here? Will I simply fade into nothingness? Will I die? What will that do to John?_ She wondered as she slashed through more tentacles that reached up from below with her mind. Her soul was trapped here, at this thing's mercy, but one thing was for sure, if she could create a twenty-seven-kilometre image that could fool starship sensors and survive, she would not go down without a fight.

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Earth, January 30, 3872<em>

"We've got a new contact, unknown classification!" One of Hackett's officers reported.

"If it isn't one of ours, hail it." Hackett ordered, he wasn't about to risk starting a new war now that the war with the Covenant had turned serious.

"This is Commander John Shepard, can anyone hear me? Over." The static-laced comm. call came over the speakers.

"Isolate that signal! It's good to have you back, boys, what are you all doing on that ship?"

John chuckled from the video screen "Sir, finishing this fight. Should we jump off this ship before it does whatever it's going to do?"

"Are you going to be able to kill Truth if you stay on?"

"No, too many Covenant, we're barely holding our ground, there's too many of them…" John reported with gunfire clearly audible in the background.

"Then do it, son, you'll be of more use on the ground than fighting guerrilla style in that ship. We've got a minor infestation on the surface of Covenant still, and we're not feeling like using nukes to clear them out." Hackett ordered.

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Earth, January 30, 3872<em>

"Are you sure this thing can FLY?" Tali yelled as the holograms that portrayed the surroundings showed the Earth beneath them ass they drove the Blaze out of the still-open bay they'd initially docked in. The amount of space in the bay had nearly doubled with just how much punishment the walls had taken from Covenant attempting to steal or destroy the vehicle. It had been locked down for six days in Guard mode, holding position and firing on anything in range i.e. anything that came in the room.

"Yep, all Aeon hover units can, at least, it's impossible for them to crash unless they're destroyed." James answered as he stood behind his brother, who was at the helm.

"Well let's hope you're right…"

* * *

><p><em>East African Highway A-10, January 30, 3872<em>

"This constitutes a crash in my opinion." Tali deadpanned, looking at the Blaze bottom-hull-shaped indent in the ground where they'd landed.

"Creator Tali'Zorah is correct in her assessment." Legion concurred.

"Come on, all hover units tend to touch down like this…" John moaned. "Actually, all units do, hover units just don't have a limit to how far they can fall before starting to take damage, still, not like we crushed anything, right? Covenant Loyalists do not count."

Tali smirked at the addendum, since there were some VERY smashed Drones at the bottom of the pseudo-crater… "Right, so why couldn't we have let the Blaze come down on its own while we just jumped? I recall QP Packs can handle it…"

"John wouldn't have been able to guide the Blaze into falling onto those Drones." James replied, poking a puddle of shattered carapace and liquefied flesh to "make sure" it was dead.

"How far did we fall, exactly?" Tali asked with some trepidation.

"About one hundred and fifty kilometres, rounded down." Legion supplied MOST helpfully in his usual monotone.

"I'm starting to question my father's intelligence if that time you pulled him aside before was to ask for my hand in marriage, and if it was then from the grin you had he agreed." Tali muttered as she shook her helmeted head. James didn't say anything, pretending not to have heard it

"Boys, you guys getting me or should I sent an Air Transport to pick up what's left of you?" Hannah asked from the comm., she'd been doing something else when the Keyship had first decanted near Earth, ergo hadn't greeted them yet.

"Nah, we're fine, mom." John replied.

"Good, now tell me, why do you guys always JUMP? One of these days you'll land on something as stubborn as you are! And I DON'T DO BITS AND PIECES!" Her hologram seemed to grow impossibly large to the eyes of the beholders (though actual size did not change).

"Okay mom." John squeaked, suddenly feeling inclined to hide behind the Blaze, not even the Thresher Maw hive on Akuze had been this frightening…

"Now where's your girlfriend, John? I want to ask her why she didn't advise you to do something more intelligent than driving a tank out of a hangar bay." Hannah growled.

_Don't make a girl a promise… if you know you can't keep it…_ It echoed in John Shepard's mind before he replied "She stayed behind, she should be back home by now, Halo's gone… and High Charity."

"Our fleet didn't manage to destroy the city." Rtas Vadum called from the other end of the line. "It escaped to Slipspace, but we are engaging Jiralhanae Fleets all over Covenant space."

"Crap, well, I hope Liara's at least more or less okay, or I may just end up tearing my way through every single ship and every single person in that fleet that let High Charity go." John muttered. On the other end, the Spec Ops Commander twitched once; he had a bad feeling that this guy could actually pull that off one way or another…

"Well then let's kick off the training wheels, boys, and get the job done." James stated as they piled back into the Blaze and John took the driver's seat.

As he turned his attention to the dashboard and was about to right-click on the destination location to issue a move order to the hover-tank, John Shepard's mind locked up somehow. A familiar voice reached him, his mate's voice, echoing down through time and space… "Could you sacrifice me to complete your mission? Could you watch me die?" Liara asked in a soft whisper inside his head, next to his ear, all around him. He knew his answer all too well: NO.

"John, you okay?" James asked worriedly.

"Shepard-Commander registered as brain-dead for a moment, reasons unknown." Legion stated when John looked at him questioningly.

"I'm fine, guys, let's roll."

* * *

><p><em>High Charity, January 30, 3872<em>

Liara T'Soni shook off the sudden thought about her mate: _Could you sacrifice me to complete your mission? Could you watch me die?_ She lashed at the Slipspace engine in front of her one last time, watching it go dark before she fled from the encroaching Flood biomass, a sort of Creep, almost. She began recording the message she needed to send, now that she knew her soul being locked in this form would sustain it. "To All Coalition Forces! High Charity, the Covenant's Holy City, is on its way to Earth with an army of FLOOD. Can't tell you everything, not safe, the Gravemind knows I'm here and I've been fighting it for days, most of High Charity's Slipspace engines are gone so it'll be pretty slow, most likely take a week to reach Earth at this rate. The Gravemind doesn't know of the Portal, where it leads, on the other side is a solution, a way to stop the Flood without firing the remaining Rings." She hissed in pain as her barriers wavered enough for a tentacle to erupt from the deck and punch her hard in the ass, before it was vaporized with a thought. If she was not an avatar but in her normal body without armour, then that would have torn through her even though it wasn't as strong as a Lurker's subterranean tentacles. Then she sank to her knees under a psychic hammer-blow that was akin to what Commander T'Soni had described as the Dream Eater ability. "Hurry, John… the Ark… there's not much time." She grunted as she sliced through more tentacles, hacking her way out through a veritable forest of them, activating the Trick Room ability so that reality warped, making her, the slower of the two combatants, faster and Gravemind slower. It would give her the speed edge she would need to survive for a little longer.

* * *

><p><em>East African Highway A-10, January 30, 3872<em>

"Hail, Coalition Marines."

"Hail, Arbiter." John called back at the Riptide that had just joined them. The area was too full of Covenant warships and they'd set up enough AA guns that crewed aircraft were risky to field and Experimentals were still being mustered to deal with the threat, simply because bombardment wasn't yet authorized.

"Boys, the Prophet of Truth has found the Installation under East Africa, our best chance of stopping him is a fleet strike, but they've been setting up too many AA guns and ground-to-surface batteries, I'm mustering an army for a land push but you guys should start working your way toward the defence coordination center, it's in this Surface-to-orbital gun here." She highlighted the target along with a series of auxiliary targets "Destroy it so that the army can get all the anti-ship guns in one sweep. Good luck boys."

The two vehicles rolled up to a building flagged for destruction, a wrecked UEF-model Tier 3 Land Factory "With my gentle encouragement, our Lords' holy relic springs to life. It is unfortunate that our enemies also bear witness to its glory. But soon their dull eyes will be closed; seared by the Rings' unforgiving might." Truth announced from a holographic pedestal that had been set up on the manufacturing surface of the Factory.

"Toast it." John muttered as he used an attack command to target the factory and start blasting away with the Quantum Autoguns. The Arbiter did the same next to him with the Hell's Fury Riot Gun atop the Riptide, which was more powerful, more durable, and more expensive than the Blaze. After thoroughly riddling the hologram with explosions, the Factory's wreck itself was still nearly undamaged but for the scorching one side, the half-slagged side, had received when it had been hit by the Plasma Projector shot that had burnt through its over-shield, shield and structural fields, then destroyed it. The solution was relatively simple: Call down a Mavor strike from a firebase.

Half a minute after both Tier 2 Amphibious Tanks had scooted out of the area, the Factory was blown to pieces with the landing of the first shell, over a hundred kilotons of TNT equivalent energy blowing it to pieces from the inside. The shell had crashed through the top decking before detonating, as no structural fields were there to stop it. A normal factory could have endured the shot, but the half-slagged wreck (with lots of Covenant still inside the building) simply disintegrated under the blow.

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><p>AN: REVIEW!


	29. Weathered Alliance

A/N: So I was thinking, since hover units can resist gravity… that means they can fly, no?

I just realized the human counterpart to Ardat-Yakshi: The Succubus. Of course this depends on interpretation of the latter term… but "seduce you and then eat your soul"? Heh… Anyways, the A-Y Chronicles has been updated and the details of Brackman's cheating in the bet revealed.

Would it be unreasonable for me to have the Precursors, the Xel'Naga, the Dark Voice, and so on be the Reapers? As in the Forerunners ended up forgetting that they themselves drove the Reapers back in the first Forerunner-Reaper War and the Reapers created the flood the second time around, having noted the Forerunner way of suppressing sentient species from progress had let them survive the intervening 50,000 years. In Halo canon, the Precursors were either wiped out or driven away 150,000 years ago, 50,000 years before the Halos. Bingo! Add to that the forgetfulness of time and deification of once-respected enemies… and of course other massive fuckups on the Forerunner side… yeah. I've just gone to check out the Terminals data and I could probably add this fic up to 42 chapters or something with that, just covering most of the history. The Intergalactic Travel aspect can be the stage-setter for the next Great War the Reapers are going to start to weaken the galaxy. After all, this current war (counting the Schism) has cost the Covenant at least something on the order of 70,000 ships of various classes, and at least 50,000 of those are cruiser and above. That is a MASSIVE amount. Once again, to those who are wondering, the reason the Covenant could not muster enough ships at once to swamp the Coalition to death is that most of these have been in mothball yards since the end of the Unggoy Rebellions, and most of the crews who had served are now dead or too old for service. So they have an active military a very small fraction that size and even reservists aren't that plentiful as there hasn't been a war for a long time. I am also, and NOTE THIS: REMOVING HUMANITY'S STATUS AS PRECURSOR DESCENDANTS! (Halo: Contact Harvest was really, really stupid.)

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><p>Chapter 29: Weathered Alliance<p>

_Near East African Highway A-10, January 30, 3872_

They'd received news of a large Brute camp nearby moments ago, which was the reason that "empty air" (courtesy of Coalition active camouflage systems) was currently tearing through the Covenant camp, levelling everything in front of it into the dirt as a pulpy, bloody mess. Riptides had four big pods for their anti-gravity drives and turbofans, and those were coming in REALLY handy. Believe it or not, the back-up fans were most of what made it much more durable in combat than the others of its classification… and more costly. Of course, if they were turned on, it was a "bye-bye" to stealth of any and all sorts, still, it was worth the few extra seconds it could get in on the battlefield.

Blaze T2 Hover Tanks were so much worse at running over infantry that it wasn't even funny, skimming the ground was irritating with the smoothly curved hull, as outcrops would force the tank's autopilot to angle it and thus fail at cleansing some blind spots in the terrain even with strafing the hull sideways or diagonally. The Riptide's more angular hull made it easier to just crush things out of the way and clear corners, but that was beside the point. Regardless, there was a cloud of debris and destruction following both vehicles' unseen paths.

"Do you think this is a bit… marginally… dishonourable?" Thel Vadam asked out of boredom as he piloted the Riptide into another tent, flattening it utterly with over a thousand tons of T2 Amphibious Tank (the price increase meant mass increase).

Usze snorted from where she was sitting, watching the carnage "No, we use Wraiths to run over enemies all the time. This is no different… other than over ten times the collision mass and much more firepower."

"Not to mention collision size." N'tho added helpfully. Kip had stayed on the ships in orbit with Rtas in favour of giving them some "Alone time" after talking to the cook, Gardner. N'tho didn't get it, the Arbiter was sitting right there ergo it wasn't "alone time" per se and besides, neither he nor Usze were homosexual… was he? N'tho felt a sudden urge to glance suspiciously at his best friend, after all, Usze did have a habit of turning down all offers… then again by that standard he'd be gay and Thel Vadam would also be gay, what a joke. Still, it was interesting to watch the Brutes get flattened while shooting around randomly, the active camouflage hiding even the shield ripples from sight on the few negligible hits the tank took.

"I need a situational report, Hannah." Hackett's voice said over the comm.

"Atmospheric disturbances are intensifying above the Installation, Hackett." The Division Commander, better known as the Cybran Member of the Elite Four, replied simply. "The twins and the Arbiter are moving as fast as their vehicles allow, they'll be fine about getting there in time."

"I have delayed the activation of the installation, it will not become active for another five days, though a shield will be protecting the area from us starting from about thirty minutes from now to thirty minutes before the thing activates." Crystal stated primly.

Hannah's hologram nodded "Great, Hackett, is Crystal's pronouncement accurate?"

Hackett's smirked back "Indeed, power levels appear to be building very slowly, estimated time to charge is five days."

The lake bed the crew was now silently flying/hovering over wasn't even funny with how much they were smashing while moving along silent and undetected. "Did we seriously just shave off the top of a Wraith Tank?" N'tho deadpanned as a small vibration ran through the Riptide's hull and the holograms depicting the outside showed a Wraith minus the top quarter or so of its height (and thus thoroughly disabled) rapidly disappearing into the distance behind them. The Riptide's gun was tearing into every vehicle or large infantry concentration within the area as it flew along, and the Blaze next to them was doing the same. What little counter-fire that came was so inaccurate (since even the shells the two tanks were firing were more or less invisible to non-Coalition optical sensors and eyes) that it might as well not have been attempted, shield regeneration easily kept up with it as the two tanks crossed the lake-bed, landing much punishment along the way and leaving behind some rather disorganized Covenant Loyalists still trying to figure out what the fuck had just happened.

* * *

><p>AN: For the record, Amphibious Tanks are quite speedy, in fact, these days their (upgraded model) movement rate is something on the order of 300 kilometres per hour (movement rate 4.2 instead of 3.7), note that in Halo canon a Mongoose can pull 95 km/h. That says something about how fast they are soaring over the lake-bed.

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><p><em>High Charity, January 30, 3872<em>

Liara bit back at Gravemind viciously, nursing a wound to her belly, laughing maniacally (being trapped in a shell of a form for six days with nothing but combat to distract you did not help her sound sane, she realized) while shouting "What are you worth, when I have defied GODS and DEMONS!" She wasn't sure where the lines had come from, but they felt… right, somehow.

Little did she know, in past incarnations, Liara T'Soni HAD sometimes, literally, defied assorted gods and demons, and come out sort of on top every time. Of course, that wasn't counting the times when she was the only one who made it out of a mess alive, everyone she cared for gone… one man in particular.

* * *

><p><em>Near East African Highway A-10, January 30, 3872<em>

John was piloting the Blaze into and through a parked Phantom that would have taken too long for the guns to swing around to hit, and wasn't really worth it anyways. Smashing a mass of over six or seven hundred tons at least into a lighter object at three hundred plus kilometres per hour tended to wreck it, ergo they went with the ramming. Suddenly John's mind locked up again, his chest constricting, unable to breathe, the universe pressing down on him from every direction. The only solace he had was the voice that echoed in his mind in a sort of distant whisper "I have defied _Gods_ and _Demons_…" That voice calmed him before his Cybran programs could even begin to act and he recovered from the sudden paralysis smoothly.

"John, I think I should drive." James spoke up "Your vitals just pinged brain-dead again for a moment back there."

"We've got a swarm of anti-air Wraiths in the next lake bed, boys, kill them!" Hannah ordered as they approached the next lake-bed. In response, John set his Blaze to Attack-move and called Thel to show him how to do the same…

"GIVE YOUR DAMNED TANK A MOVE-ORDER AWAY FROM ME! AND ALWAYS CLICK BEYOND THEIR IMMEDIATE AREA WHEN GIVING AN ATTACK-MOVE COMMAND!" John roared as the Riptide opened fire on the Blaze with the attack command failing to attack-move to an area, instead being clicked on John's vehicle instead. The over-shield collapsed just as Thel did as he was told and the Riptide stopped firing on the Blaze, the gun turning away to face the next closest set of enemies automatically. Technically, it was the whole tank turning, but that was beside the point. "DO NOT CLICK ON A FRIENDLY UNIT WHEN TELLING A UNIT TO ATTACK-MOVE!"

"ALRIGHT I GET IT!" Thel shouted back before the Blaze rammed the rear of the Riptide. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"That was for taking down my over-shield and half my unit's personal shield." John stated bluntly, both males growled at one another before John resumed "Let's go kill those AA Wraiths, yeah?"

The Arbiter agreed "Yeah, I need to kill something right now."

* * *

><p>"Still beat you in kill count." Thel argued back after they left a smoking lake-bed full of destroyed vehicles behind.<p>

"I wasn't aware we were having a contest, you do realize that Riptides deal almost twice the damage per second a Blaze can muster, right?" John replied distractedly, suddenly wishing he had an Obsidian or Ilshavoh right now just so he could be handling the better vehicle… in everything but speed.

"There's a Scarab closing on your location boys." Hannah called in again.

"Crap, neither of us have the sort of hitting power or durability we'd need to stand up to a Scarab…" John told Thel "We'll have to kite it."

"What's kiting?" The Arbiter inquired.

"Turn your vehicle's controls over to me and I'll make sure we all get through this in one piece." John stated simply.

"Alright…" Both tanks advanced on the incoming Scarab, onboard warnings going off when they entered its sensor detection radius and began firing immediately on the much larger unit. Thanks to their lower profiles and speed, John threw the Riptide to one side in time to dodge most of the first plasma accelerator shot from the Scarab. It began to charge a second shot as the two Amphibious Tanks ran circles around it, taking some fire from the auxiliary guns but chipping away at the beast's shields steadily. It couldn't turn around fast enough for a direct shot with the plasma accelerator but it did manage a semi-sideways glancing shot to the Blaze that the Hover Tank navigated out of in time to not get completely toasted by the beam.

The Riptide attracted the next shot, the three Sangheili inside holding tight to their chairs as the unit trembled before fleeing out of the way. Thankfully, the Scarab's plating finally gave out, the shields having fallen some time ago, and it began to fail from too many shells smashing into it. The groans of dying machinery rent the air for a moment before it thudded down into the dirt. After that it exploded, core overloading, dealing a little more damage to the two Hover tanks that had assailed it.

Both were aflame by the time the job was done, secondary systems having overloaded and caught fire, but their wounds were healing as they continued moving on unhampered. Hannah's hologram nodded approvingly "Kill the Defence Coordination Hub and we'll get a smooth, painless run on them, damned Surface-to-orbital guns…"

"There was honour in our Covenant once… and there shall be again." Thel replied, in shorter terms: will do.

So the two tanks did, battering their way through waves of Brutes and their vehicles until they pounded the Hub into the ground with their guns. "Take heart, my brothers! Only our enemies should fear this raging storm!" Truth announced grandiosely over the comm. "Darkened skies and lashing fire are all that remains for them when we, _the worthy_, have passed beyond."

"I will not be shamed. Not again! Not by you!" Thel did a broadcast right back from his place in his Riptide as the AA Gun atop the Hub exploded, the upper section rolling down the hill they had come up.

"All Brute cruisers are pulling back to Truth's ship. Winds inside the storm just hit 200 kilometers per hour, reading energy cascades all over the artifact! A shield is engaging!"

"That shield will recharge too fast to kill without killing everything under it, and we can't afford that." Crystal told them "We'll just have to sit back and wait for five days."

John's mind locked up again with the whisper of "I am your shield… I am your sword…" Before that last whisper faded to nothing and the world returned to normal. He sighed as Coalition aircraft filled the skies and annihilated every last bit of Covenant on the ground before a Restorer landed near them.

"Arbiter's troops, John, James, all of you get in that Restorer. Leave the tanks, they're basically worthless anyways." After they'd all gotten on the Continental, the Division Commander continued grimly "We're picking up a slipspace communication… it seems someone snuck it through from High Charity."

John suddenly had a bad feeling about this, a very, very bad feeling. Something must have gone horribly wrong. He reached out mentally for Liara… and came up short, finding nothing, as if the connection they had had been severed. He felt as if he couldn't breathe, couldn't think, but it was for just a moment before his Cybran back-up routines resumed normal bodily functions and he slumped dejectedly in the seat aboard the Continental.

* * *

><p><em>High Orbit over Earth, January 30, 3872<em>

"I'd heard form Feron that something might have happened to Liara starting a few days ago, but I never thought it was this serious… thought it was just fatigue and her armour would help her recover soon enough." Hannah hissed at Hackett before John Shepard, James Shepard, and Tali'Zorah practically broke down the door to the conference room.

"What has happened?" John asked in a rush.

"A few minutes ago we got this transmission, tag's from High Charity." Hackett stated, starting the playback.

"To all Coalition Forces!" Liara's hologram, still her human-shaped version, shouted as she stamped a Flood tentacle out of existence "High Charity, the Covenant's Holy City, is on its way to Earth with an army of FLOOD." Slashing a Combat Form to bits in the hologram emphasised that "Can't tell you everything, not safe, the Gravemind knows I'm here and I've been fighting it for days, most of High Charity's Slipspace engines are gone so it'll be pretty slow, most likely take a week to reach Earth at this rate. The Gravemind doesn't know of the Portal, where it leads, on the other side is a solution, a way to stop the Flood without firing the remaining Rings." The holographic Liara stiffened in pain, hissing before she pulverized the tentacle that had nearly impaled her through the ass.

Suddenly her psionic shields flared under a hammer-blow of sorts and she sank to her knees, clutching at her head "Hurry, John… the Ark… there's not much time." Tentacles closed in about her but she threw her arms out, slashing through them with a psychic cut, and erupted up and out of the scope of the hologram before everything went really weird and warped in the room and the message ended.

"I was right, something terrible has happened." John stated grimly, bluntly.

"Hackett, will John and his Crew be required here for the next five days?" Hannah asked abruptly, looking up at the UEF Member of the Elite Four questioningly across the holo-table (better quality than typical project-anywhere holograms).

Hackett shook his head "No, not unless something really weird comes up."

"Good, then I'm going on a short trip to Hagalaz. Hold down the fort here for me, will you?" She raised an eyebrow to get a curt nod from the youngest UEF Supreme Commander ever.

Hackett grimaced "Can do Hannah. I'm very sorry, John." He inclined the young man he'd been a sort of uncle to all these years.

John nodded mutely as his mother replied "Thanks Steven, have fun for the next hour or so."

"My condolences to you too, Hannah." Hackett shook his old friend's hand firmly before exchanging a salute with John and going back to the bridge, muttering "This is going to be a boring five days… other than mustering fleets from the Gantries all across the Coalition."

Hannah motioned for her sons to follow her to the shuttle that would take her back to the _Autumn_. "Crystal, what can you tell me about Liara's current condition?"

The blue-haired, orange-eyed visage that emerged form the Crystal was different from Crystal's usual but the face still looked enough like Liara and Crystal that she was easily recognizable "This was NOT supposed to happen, I didn't disintegrate myself for nothing, at least that's what I'm hoping…"

"Commander T'Soni, I'm honoured." Hannah stated politely, bowing her head in deference to the spirit fragment of the Legendary Commander that contained a full copy of her knowledge, experience, etc.

The Legendary Commander nodded back politely "Same to you, Division Commander Shepard, after all, I set the stage, assembled the actors, you played out the actual final act. Now, this was most certainly NOT supposed to happen to my reincarnation. Hell, I ERASED myself form existence to prevent this sort of thing from happening. A soul that has left its body is a highly risky prospect. At best, it constitutes… John could you leave? You don't need to hear this. I have seen into the past as well as a bit of the future from when I existed. In the past, this sort of thing happening to Liara tended to cause you to go a bit off the… deep end. For example, in one past you became the 'Lone Guardian', you don't want to know about that."

"Sounds like a vigilante." John commented, leaning forward in interest "So what's happening to Liara? I need to know."

"And I don't need to tell you."

Commander T'Soni and John Shepard stared each other down for a moment before John spoke again "Mom and James will tell me anyways, won't you Mom, James?"

Both nodded "Yeah."

The Legendary Commander huffed "Fine, I'll just say it, at best, she's vegetative for now. At worst, she'll be dead, one hundred percent DEAD." She emphasized the last word. "I'm serious, a body without a soul is a vegetable or dead. I'm hoping that I didn't erase myself from existence for nothing and that she can get better, like how you got better from being a crispy, blackened piece of cold dead meat, but there's always a risk."

John was quiet for so long that Hannah began to worry before he spoke again "I understand now Commander, I understand why you wanted to hide it…"

The Legendary Commander began "You know, I thought it wouldn't …"

"GRAVEMIND WILL KNOW DEATH WHEN I HUNT DOWN EVERY FLOOD FORM IN THE UNIVERSE!" John roared so loudly and punched the wall so hard that the deck vibrated a little.

"…be good for your sanity to tell you." Commander T'Soni finished, more or less unfazed, as if she'd been expecting such a blow-up.

"We need to get to Hagalaz quickly." Hannah stated simply, ignoring her son's outburst. As they seated themselves in the Restorer she started again "John, let me tell you that I'd wished from Day One to have Liara as a daughter-in-law, but if she dies… you need to be able to move on effectively, the rest of the galaxy depends on it. You are the only Council Space public face the Coalition really has. You need to be able to get over the loss and move on."

Hannah's brown eyes found themselves being stared down by orange ones a moment later "Division Commander, shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. I lost my version of John Shepard and I never got over it." Commander T'Soni turned to the current incarnation of her soul-mate and gave him some quick pointers on how to save the galaxy "All that you have to do if this round ends up the way I died to prevent is make sure that the Reapers are annihilated, and erase the Flood from existence, the Zerg should be able to tell you when no more Flood exist in the universe."

John Shepard replied in a broken-sounding whisper "Yes, Legendary Commander, understood, Legendary Commander…"

Commander T'Soni sighed "Damn, this is why I didn't want to tell him. We need to get to Hagalaz right away so that he has a reason to fight instead of acting like he's lost the will to live. I went through this phase right after my John died… right after I killed him… but I got over it once I saw what I had to fight for, the future."

"Wait, you killed your version of John?" Hannah asked sceptically.

"You know what's funny? Every single time, the mother of John and James Shepard has been Hannah Shepard." T'Soni ignored Hannah's question for a moment before replying quietly "Yes, it was an accident though, a friendly fire incident in the middle of a battle. Our children died in that battle, and so did James and Tali. I was the only one left… It seems to be a fairly frequent outcome of the Game that only one of us four survives a battle and then commits suicide as soon as whatever we have to do is done. I myself tried a few times before realizing I had to secure the future. After that I realized my Ultimate Wish required my existence as the price, so I gladly paid it. In a way, I'm just like many of those past lives… but this time things will be different… I hope."

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><p>AN: REVIEW!


	30. One Keyship to Rule Them All…

A/N: FLUFF WARNING!

**One-village-idiot** seems to have anticipated the next battles of this fic. Let me remind you that Zerg re-spawn quickly enough that Coalition-issue equipment is not required… or used, except for the elite of the elite i.e. Urz, maybe some of the Hunter Killers, and a portable shield emitter for Torrasques. Ultralisks are tough critters, though not as tough as the Hybrid on Castanar (note: Ultralisks have about same health as an Ilshavoh, but can be brought down by pin-point fire from infantry if they shoot at the right points since Zerg have yet to develop total bio-electric field coverage). Also, there are a few things I haven't unveiled about the Zerg yet. Though I must say your Dark Voice request was a "?" for me: I provided a description of the transmission image in the Doomsayer chapter of **SupCom: Koprulu Sector**, that's one VERY specific Reaper.

I may make Quarians a bit too human for many peoples' tastes, but that's their origin story, a summary of which is listed below. **Sarge1995**, you shall see where "**Keelah Se'lai**" comes from.

**Douchiesnacks** thinks I update too fast, so should I consider slowing down a bit? I'll start putting **Pokémon: Rise of Legends** up, at least the first story arc, if enough people tell me I should slow down on updating this fic. I already have two chapters of **PROL** written out…

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><p>Chapter 30: One Keyship to Rule Them All…<p>

OR: The Infinite Void (the above is really only to match the next few chapters)

_Hagalaz, January 30, 3872_

"Where is she, Feron? WHERE IS SHE?" The unfortunate Drell found himself elevated some sixty centimetres off the ground the instant the doorway opened wide enough to allow the Marine in Cybran Heavy Armour passage. Feron could have sworn John Shepard was emitting smoke from his nostrils and had fires dancing behind his eyes as he stared the nearly trembling Drell down. He was very happy he had sent several messages to Hannah and John's ship, otherwise he'd probably have a gun pointed at his face right now…

"She's in the med bay, the equipment is monitoring her, the armour's sustaining her well enough that I didn't need to hook her up to anything, not really." Feron explained.

John Shepard sighed and deflated a little before dropping the Drell back to the floor "sorry for that, Feron, hope your work's going well, Chakwas, with me, let's go get Liara's body back." The Drell nodded affirmative to the "work's going well" part before stepping aside.

The CMO nodded as she moved out in her Aeon Light armour complete with a medical gurney that could hover or roll "Aye Commander."

Within but moments they reached the same med bay Feron had been found in when they first came to the ship, where the Drell had been tortured. The room was much changed, however, the chair replaced by a comfortable bed, though the monitoring and life support equipment remained. "Liara…" John whispered to himself as he stood on the observation area. She looked serene, at peace, with almost a ghost of a smile on her features, almost asleep but for the acute lack of the familiar psychic presence John had always associated with home, with comfort, with happiness. Her blue skin was as flawless as ever, her fringe and head crest as smoothly tapered as he'd remembered, her Aeon Medium Armour covering everything from the neck down, except her hands, in a protective, life-supporting shell that could in theory sustain the body's life indefinitely. That was what she was right now, just a shell, a husk of the woman he loved with every bit of his being. She no longer inhabited it, but he would keep it safe for her, when she was ready to come back, it would be there for her, and he'd be there when she returned to it.

That was why Andrea Chakwas was disengaging the other, back-up life-support systems, leaving only the soft beeping of the readout Chakwas had from the armour as she went down into the pit of the room. It was reminiscent of how one would approach an angel, and with the many soft lights converging on the bed Liara rested upon, her hands clasped together over her chest, John Shepard could not help but find the analogy incredibly appropriate for her. Chakwas raised Liara a little using her armour's levitation pod and moved her over smoothly to the gurney, careful to have her arms ready in case the levitation somehow failed. Then she engaged the gurney's hover-stabilization function and moved it smoothly up the ramp to the observation area. "Come on, Commander, it's time to go back to the _Autumn_."

As they were about to leave, John Shepard pulled Feron into a man-hug "Thank you for keeping her safe and setting up so much extra gear to watch her just in case, thank you Feron."

Feron nodded once they'd broken apart "Don't mention it, she's my friend and I owed it to her. Good luck John Shepard, I have a feeling the galaxy, nay, the universe, is relying on you two."

"Until the Covenant War is over, and we meet again!" John extended a hand.

Feron nodded and clasped it in his four-fingered hand "Until we meet again." They shook firmly before John entered the airlock and it cycled, letting him into the Restorer before the T3 AA Gunship disengaged and departed the Shadow Broker Ship.

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><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, High Orbit over Hagalaz, January 30, 3872<em>

N'tho's jaw dropped as they watched the solemn medical procession enter the main cargo bay form the huge Restorer they had used for a shuttle "Who is that…?" He asked, no longer sparring with Usze, both having turned off their Energy Swords (both of which had been on Safe Mode anyways).

"It seems someone's taken damage." Usze said frowning.

"She doesn't look like it, so why's she going with that doctor-person?"

"They told us, in the Coalition, doctors are highly respected for saving lives through whatever means necessary, and for curing sickness. There's no stupid 'Honour Complex' that gets in the way of basic survival." Usze replied bluntly despite whispering.

"I can respect that, I was saying that if she's not hurt then she shouldn't take up the Doc's time." N'tho whispered back.

"I think she is, let's follow along and see what's up."

When the procession reached the med bay, they found the Arbiter looking at a piece of medical equipment with interest. Thel Vadam regarded the crew for a moment before looking at the new and only patient of the med bay "Who is she? Her face looks a lot like the all-powerful female we often encountered assisting you, John, you know, your mate?"

"Liara is the one who projected those avatars of herself." John replied quietly, distractedly, staring at the Asari Maiden's unmoving form, eyes on her face almost wishing that her eyes would open and he'd see the spark he usually saw behind them, the warmth, the caring soul… but now, that was gone. Her soul was gone, and all he could do was prepare to follow Truth to the solution to the Flood and destroy the vile parasites once and for all. He could only wish it would not be too late.

"So she was Asari?" Thel Vadam frowned "Why did she project herself as human then? Aren't Asari a part of the Coalition?"

John actually tore his eyes off his girlfriend long enough to shoot a gaping stare at the Arbiter "Vadam…" They'd agreed to call the Arbiter Vadam and the communications officer Lodam to prevent confusion of the two. "Damn we forgot to tell you about the Citadel Council didn't we? Very well, the Asari are one of the founding members of the Citadel Council. At present there are four Councillors, though our presence on it is only marginal in terms of actual power. They don't influence us much and we don't influence them much. It's good to have external powers so we can focus outward."

"Huh, then she probably didn't want us to end up searching for her kind and finding them…" Vadam stated thoughtfully before realizing "I think we should all leave to give them a little time together, guys, scoot!" He herded the crowd, other than Hannah, out of the room, turning his head to nod respectfully at John and Liara, then another nod for Hannah.

Hannah looked at the "young" woman she would like to have as a daughter-in-law eventually and bit her lip. Then she looked up at her son, whose eyes were clouded over with sadness, and stated "I should go too, jump us back to Earth…"

"Thanks Mom." John whispered, taking off his gauntlets, helmet having not even been put on for this excursion. He put them in his Quantum Storage (aka Inventory) before drawing up a chair next to his soul-mate. He was sure that was the right term for describing their bond, so close, so pure, and so absolute it was. John Shepard reached for Liara T'Soni's hands and clasped them in his own. The warmth and texture of her skin was the same as usual, but something was lacking, a gaping hole in the contact, the spiritual, innate aspect of them recognizing one another and their psychic signatures mingling in greeting. He sniffled, she was the only one who could bring tears, be they of joy, guilt or whatever, from him, even if it was from guilt at causing her so much pain. _This is probably the universe's way of getting back at me for dying on her for two years, two damned years… years she'll never get back. But if it's punishing me then why is she the one who needs to be hurting? Why, God or whatever else is out there? WHY?_ He thought bitterly, noting how her limp hands unclasped and one had slipped from his loose "grasp". Both blue hands slid from her smooth armour to her sides, and he instinctively brought the closer one, her right hand, up and held it against his cheek as if to reaffirm that she was really there… her body truly empty.

If it wasn't for the gaping hole that was there in a psychic sense, John Shepard suspected he'd actually feel comforted, at home, with her hand on his cheek. The limp nature of the limb now that its master, well, mistress, was gone didn't help one bit. After some time of holding on and wiping his eyes on his bare forearms, he set Liara's hand down. John Shepard missed her, and he would get her back. As he laid his head don on his right arm, looking up at her face from his position next to her arm, one hand idly traced the ridges on the side of Liara's head, the same ones he liked nibbling carefully on and that she liked to be pampered on. He didn't even notice the Quantum Jump announcement or the subtle moment of transition.

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><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, High Orbit over Earth, January 30, 3872<em>

"You know, that female didn't seem as scary up close. The Keyship looks more intimidating, unlike what you'd said before." Thel told his old friend via the communications uplink he got from EDI. It had been a shock when the woman had showed the Sangheili her old body (without telling them it used to be her), complete with the hardware blocks i.e. rather phallic-shaped things shoved in all three of the Adjutant body's holes plus a pair of nipple clamps. They had been even more astounded by the fact that she had begun as nothing more than an AI and was now integrating well into Coalition society, including having acquired a mate.

"That's because according to them her soul is gone, Thel." Orna Fulsam replied "Her avatar on the one instance when I met it radiated such power that I wanted to crawl back into my eggshell and never come back out. A thousand Forerunner Dreadnoughts could not match her…"

Thel shrugged "To each his own I guess. Still, the way in which it affected the Demon was frightening. I have no doubt now that we will cleanse the Parasite from High Charity when it arrives, and the Gravemind as our friendly neighbourhood Devouring One tells us it is called, will pay."

"Devouring One? Is that a title of some sort?"

"There are many other species out there, Orna. For now what matters is that the Zerg and Protoss, though they dislike each other, the Protoss more so than the Zerg, are both allies of the Coalition and will be helping us destroy the Parasite. The Nerazim Protoss are the only ones able to finally kill the Gravemind, and the Zerg are the ones to counter the Flood, since the Flood was created a hundred thousand years ago from Zerg genetic material from back then. All three races were created to serve the Reapers, but the Zerg and Protoss rebelled. The Zerg rebellion was crushed shortly after the Forerunner-Reaper War that came before the Forerunner-Flood War, and their Overmind was indoctrinated. The Flood was created as a stronger strain than the Zerg of the time, but could not mutate as fast as the Zerg, and was as a race indoctrinated. The Protoss had a civil war, and the Zerg being indoctrinated led to the Forerunners not having crowd-control weapons to fight the Flood effectively. Sadly for them, they had such advanced weapons for fighting large targets that they couldn't regress fast enough to fight the small ones effectively." Thel explained.

"Confusing, but makes sense, but what are these Reapers? And you still haven't answered what a Devouring One is."

"Oh… right, it's an elite version of the smallest Zerg warrior strain, the Zergling. AS for the Reapers, they are giant sentient starships that invade the galaxy every 50,000 years and melt down organic sentient life for genetic material to create more of them with." Thel stated bluntly.

"WHAT?"

"I didn't believe it either at first, but I have seen enough proof to believe. One of our Super Carriers could probably take on two or even three and win, our Assault Carriers or Battleships could take the smaller ships of the line they have one-to-one, but we haven't got the anti-fighter capability or swarming ability the Coalition has. We need this alliance I'm spearheading with them for more than just the Great Schism, Orna, I hope Rtas is listening in as well and that this is being recorded."

"I am, and yes this is being recorded." Rtas' face popped up in a separate view screen. "Do you want to forward this report you sent us to the remaining Councillors?"

"Do it, but make sure they do not know about the Citadel Council and races yet, I don't want to spark another needless war when a huge threat is bearing down on our galaxy from beyond its borders."

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><p><em>James Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, High Orbit over Earth, January 31, 3872 (Around 12 AM or so)<em>

"I feel kind of bad for John and Liara." Tali murmured into her lover's chest as they cuddled up against each other on the bed. It had after all been a VERY long and tiring day, it was unspoken between them that nothing would happen tonight. Tomorrow's dawn however was still fair game.

James sighed as he stroked Tali's hair, which she'd let grow out to shoulder-length by now "I know, baby, they're even closer than we are, quite an accomplishment if you ask me."

Tali nodded slightly, her cheek pressed up against James' chest and the steady, slow but strong beat of his heart filled one of her pointed, elfin ears "Yeah, I can't imagine what John's going through right now, or what Liara had to go through when he died. How did she handle it?"

"Their bond hadn't established itself nearly as far back then." Someone spoke up from inside the room and both James and Tali were on their feet with their weapons ready, holding their armour chest-pieces against themselves and activating the over-shield immediately. Crystal's semi-hologram facepalmed and groaned "Go back to your cuddling, guys, you've earned it." The couple sighed, shook their heads, dropped their armour and scurried under the sheets, covering themselves up. They had been relying only on sharing body heat for warmth before, not even bothering with getting under the sheets, but now… "I had a horrible time when I lost my John Shepard, separated by sheer distance, and it wasn't like I could drop everything and take one of the Keyships to go to him either, I had responsibilities… to many responsibilities."

"Like what?" Tali asked.

Crystal snorted "Tali, I'm not about to tell you that, just wait and you shall eventually see."

"Come on, Crystal, a little information about some of our past lives won't hurt…" that was James.

"I guess… in one of your past lives, not the Forerunner one by the way, Tali, you were a humanoid animal, well, you were sentient, but when your mating season rolled around James tended to come out of it rather sore. Thankfully, he didn't need ice packs. I'm not going to go into details but it's one of the main reasons I'm so shocked your favourite weapon is a flamethrower, then again, considering some of your other past lives, your elements seem to be fire and ice. A sharp contrast, appropriate considering how you were in that environment suit for so long and were originally shy about parting with it, but now, now that you are free from the suit you are all over him. Someone else might think of it as clingy…"

"I like Tali the way she is, what's wrong with being affectionate?" James sounded rather defensive, and Crystal chuckled.

"Nothing, and I bet you really like her nymphomaniac side too, right?" Crystal was grinning a bit too broadly.

James shrugged slightly "It's a nice bonus, we like being together physically as well as emotionally. Before you mention it, we spend a LOT of time just talking about our interests and plans, and we discuss almost everything with each other."

"I know, you two and my two… that sounded weird coming out of my mouth but whatever… have always been dreamboat couples. The two pairs of us are literally crafted for each other, to fit together, Tali, James seems to know you inside and out better than you know yourself, right?" Tali blushed, her cheeks tinting purple instead of her usual lavender, and nodded. "That's because his instincts are geared toward you, and yours are geared toward him. Believe me, it's an experience few others even come close to, and that's why the damned Game is set up this way. The universe is sadistic and this is how it shows it. You've survived this far thanks to the Legendary Commander, just be careful, I think the ball has begun rolling. If Liara falls, then you can be sure that one of you if not both will soon follow, most likely Tali will go next… Tali, I think you should take a better look at your hand."

Tali raised an eyebrow before pulling her arms away from where they were wrapped around her lover "Hmm… oh, oh Keelah…" She stared at the two short bumps that had begun to grow between her two fingers. "What's happening to me?"

"The better question is, why did I have to tell you for you to see it?" Crystal muttered "As you can see, the Prophecy was right. It seems the collaborative effort between me and my generation's version of you paid off, the Forerunners did become dextro-adaptable, and it DID allow more of them to survive after the Halo Array fired. Don't' worry, since you ate enough levo-amino food to trigger the beginning of the process, you'll simply grow what we couldn't modify to fit into a dextro-amino metabolism, your appearance and such won't change…much."

"You mean…" Tali's jaw worked up and down several times, but no sound came out. "The legends were right, we did come from the stars, but it was said that Keelah himself planted the Quarian race on Rannoch."

"It had that name in the Forerunner star charts, and for the record, Admiral Tali 'Killer' Zorah was the one to bring her seven ships to Rannoch and settle there, note that she'd made her flagship's name by throwing darts at a dartboard with letters and some punctuation symbols, and she did it completely blindly. Sadly, about ten thousand years later, from what I can see form Commander T'Soni's looks into the past, the Quarian race was just building itself back up to industrial civilization when a Global Thermonuclear War began."

"The Great Winter War…" Tali whispered to herself. It was so named by later historians who had discovered evidence for it because of the relatively short Nuclear Ice Age that had followed.

"In the years after the war, all the history annals of your people were lost. Among the few things that remained was a badly misspelled and rather mispronounced version of your moniker and a properly spelled version of your flagship name, the _Se'lai_. THAT is why I and Commander T'Soni in here can't really hold back our mirth whenever you say Keelah… especially when you add your flagship's name. I laughed my ass off way back then when you told me how you'd chosen the name, and every time you refer to yourself as basically God I want to laugh my ass off again… except I don't really have an ass anymore, right?" She glanced over her image's shoulder to make a point.

"Tali? TALI!" James slipped out from under the unconscious Quarian and grabbed his gauntlet to scan her with the medical scanner.

Crystal chuckled as James sighed in relief that nothing was really wrong "Don't worry, James, she's just shocked, that's all, it's not everyday that you find out your race's God is one of your past lives. Imagine if a Protoss suddenly found out he or she was Adun reincarnated, he or she might grow a mouth just so they can drop their jaw in shock."

It took a minute or two for Tali to wake up to find a still-naked James kneeling by the bed with a worried look on his face "James, don't stick your butt in Crystal's face!" She hissed.

"It's nothing I haven't seen before, they're twins, so naturally they'd be identical." Crystal commented off-handedly "And I've personally torn my John's clothes off enough times to know what he looked like underneath. They might have somewhat different pleasure points and sensitive zones to suit their different mates or mate species but they've always looked perfect."

"Right, Crystal, I had a very vivid…" Tali stopped and her pointed ears twitched once "it wasn't a dream was it?"

"No."

Tali slumped back down and went limp like a wet noodle again "Damn it… it's a lot to take in, you know?"

"Well I'll leave you two to talk it out here." Crystal smirked and floated toward the door, which opened before her before shutting, leaving the couple alone and distracted from the current plight of their brother/friends. The soul imprint smiled as she left, she had done what she had come to do.

Tali said nothing for a long time, and James was content to just hold her, knowing she needed some time to process this astounding revelation. "James?" She whimpered, looking up at him with her shining silver eyes.

"Yeah Tali?" He was playing with her hair, feeling the smooth, rich texture of it in his hands.

"Are you a bit disturbed by that fact that I'm my race's version of God reincarnated?" She knew deep down that he wouldn't be, but she had to ask somehow, she wanted to hear him say it. _I'm getting spoiled and pampered too much…_ she realized.

James smiled lazily before pulling her up his body for a kiss on the forehead "Tali, you'll always just be Tali to me, the woman I fell in love with, the woman I was made to fall in love with."

She smiled back, her swept-back ears twitching back and forth what little they could (it wasn't like they'd rotate to sweep forward) "You always knew how to make me melt on the inside, give me a warm and fuzzy feeling and turn me into a happy little puddle of goo."

Crystal's voice rang again from the living room of the suite "For the record, if you don't turn on sound dampening, I can hear you, and let me tell you Tali that one of your previous past lives did sort of melt on the inside. Don't worry, it wasn't dangerous, just that her insides became, well, gooey, in a good way, I'll leave that to figure out for yourself. See you!" The outside door of their suite closed at that.

"It's nice that Crystal's gone, I'm starting to get sleepy." James said.

Tali's ears slowly stopped twitching "Me too, happy dreams, James."

"I don't need happy dreams when you're sleeping on me." James mumbled

"You're really cute sometimes, did I tell you that?"

"I do recall it at some point. Let's sleep, lots to do tomorrow."

Tali smirked "Yeah." They said no more after that, drifting off to sleep. Their hands were clasped together, the five fingers of James Shepard fitting with the three fully developed ones Tali'Zorah had and already shifting a little to accommodate the two newly developing ones that came from eating too much levo-amino food. She had found five-fingered combat came to her easily and actually was starting to be unused to three, keeping the extra prosthetics on even when not in combat most of the time. Still, as she slipped off to sleep, she noted that if she developed human-like feet, she'd need both feet to pleasure James if she wanted to use them, not just one foot.

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><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, High Orbit over Earth, January 31, 3872 (Around 12 AM or so)<em>

John had been shooed out of the med bay by Chakwas to go back to his room and get some real rest after the constant combat he had seen over the past six days. Unfortunately for him, even after a shower to relax his tired muscles, he just could not fall asleep. It was like a piece of himself, a piece of his mind, was gone, and it left only a bottomless hole where it had once been. The comforting presence of his mate in his psyche was snuffed out, and only a deep depression was left where it had been. He needed to be at least near her body even if her spirit was gone if he wanted to rest in peace…

That was why he had to argue his way past Chakwas and was now seated in the armchair next to Liara's bed, his upper body stuck in through the protective shield bubble and his head resting on his arms, having removed those armour pieces to not bump her in his sleep. It was only with her light, natural scent filling his nose that John Shepard managed to drift off to a restless sleep. Despite the disturbances in his rest, he did not move physically, merely mad various whimpering, groaning, and sobbing noises as he slept, dreaming of Liara being tortured in Gravemind's clutches. By the time he woke up, badly shaken by his mind's fear, he almost wished he had not slept at all (the constant whine of the "Brain Dead" alert from the monitoring systems, even turned down to minimum volume, didn't help). It would be four more days before the Portal Shield could drop and let them through the Portal to the Ark, to that damned Keyship Truth was on, the Keyship that occupied every single sub-process and thought of John Shepard that was not dwelling on Liara. To be honest, that was not a lot of sub-processes.

It would be the longest five days of John Shepard's life. Needless to say, by the end of it, even the Arbiter was beginning to feel sorry for Truth and the Gravemind if… no, _when_ John Shepard encounters them. The fact that John Shepard acquired a number of serrated-edged knives that he stowed in his armour didn't help the general consensus.

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><p>AN: I hope that didn't seem too mushy for John Shepard's character.

DISCUSSION: I wanted the Reapers as a substitute for Precursors because the Precursors left the galaxy 50,000 years before the Forerunner-Reaper and Forerunner-Flood wars. Also, the intergalactic travel part can be accomplished with a giant mass relay or some manner of Quantum Rift. Who's to say the Reapers haven't discovered how to utilize the technology? Okay, so they can't cross realities or use it for short-distance work, but it would be a good way to bring Andromeda aka Star Wars and the Milky Way into another clash of titans to weaken both/either of the main galaxies the Reapers have fed off of (main because they are large galaxies). I almost feel sorry for the Republic/Empire by this point. Consider the following: Their EMP Weapons are NOT gigaton-level yields, otherwise the CIS ships that mounted them (never found out the class name) in the Clone Wars would have fried trying to fire them. Coalition units can recover from a Cybran EMP Nuke (the survivors) in something like half a minute, ships even faster. Republic and Empire warships carry something like 70 starfighters each, flimsy expendable things, while modern Coalition carriers can bear thousands of what the Republic would class as mini-corvettes (factoring in hitting power).

On the ground it's not even a contest, Coalition units are basically invisible and undetectable to Republic/Empire sensors (any of the specialized equipment that could possibly detect them accurately is destroyed as a first priority). Even if that was not true, clone phalanx, meet Fatboy. Actually, even a MA-12 Striker would likely rape their collective asses. I've read **Do Unto Others**, a Halo and Star Wars crossover, and am laughing to myself thinking about what would happen when I smash Star Wars up against ACU warfare, not to mention the utter raping that would be Covenant Plasma Projectors in their currents state (far better cycling time and somewhat better power than in Halo canon thanks to time and progress).

REVIEW!


	31. One Keyship to Find Them

A/N: One-village-idiot, I read First Strike and Fall of Reach. In canon, the Super Carrier Ascendant Justice had 7 Plasma turrets, and Cortana turned them basically into plasma projectors. I thought that number was absurdly low for a 27-km ship. Even that many plasma projectors seemed too few for the vaunted Super Carriers considering a "puny" Destroyer can mount 1. It would be more mass-efficient and crew-efficient to have a crowd of Destroyers… unless I vastly amped up a Super Carrier's armament, which lo and behold I did. Here, Plasma turrets i.e. Plasma Torpedo Launchers are entirely separate from Plasma Projectors, power output's not even close tot eh same order of magnitude. Always thought Halo had too many glass cannon ships, now, no more.

Sarge1995: I know the various sci-fi universes won't compare that well, but the idea of "powerful elder race" is common among them at least to some extent and I thought that would collaborate fairly well. I've actually vastly amped up ME and SC to be able to stack better against SupCom already, and I know it still seems like a lopsided balance… because the creators of SupCom did not think to address just how powerful 1200 years of war makes technology. For the record, **"Keelah Se'lai!"** originally meant something along the lines of **"The Founder and her Fleet be with you!"** That is why it is used in the fashion of a blessing. However, the original meaning has been almost forgotten over the millennia.

Nenfaer: Putting a SW crossover anywhere before the Clone Wars would just be mean at this point in Coalition history. I mean, ME 1 era Coalition was alright for that, but post-Covenant War Coalition is too strong. Hell, the main advantage the Old Republic/Empire's ships have is turbolaser (which aren't that powerful as they can be used as tactical support artillery against surface targets) range, and even that is partly negated by Heavy Microwave Lasers being the main anti-shipping weapons of Coalition warships nowadays. Missile weapons in the SW galaxy are also woefully inadequate in terms of swarming. Sure, proton torpedoes are quite powerful and I'll even give them upward of 2 kilotons yield, but if they were any more than, say, about 10 KT starfighters would not be able to get out of the blast zone fast enough to not have their shields fried by the radiation energy. Coalition Proton Cannons, the ship-mounted ones, are quite advantageous in comparison… In space, the Coalition might take large losses in ships, but not crews (no other starfighters in any galaxy really reach up to SupCom units…), but on the ground… *Fatboys roll by* yeah.

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><p>Chapter 31: One Keyship to Find Them<p>

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, High Orbit over Earth, February 4, 3872_

"A single Covenant ship? Only ONE? What's the range and disposition?" Hannah asked.

"In the outer system, holding position in Slipspace just beyond Pluto, might be a distraction for a fleet, regardless, we're vectoring a Heavy Destroyer to intercept."

Hannah growled before snarling "The attack proceeds as planned, Admiral. We're not going to get another shot at Truth. As soon as that shield begins to go down fire everything we've got, hammer that Keyship into the ground so WE can go through that Portal!"

"Keyships are pretty tough, you sure you can pull it off?" Crystal asked.

"We haven't got much choice if we don't want Truth near the Ark." Hannah answered grimly "And find out what's wrong with that Covenant ship. The shield's lowering, all ships, fire at will!"

Hundreds of Mavor shells began arcing down toward the surface or up from the ground in parabolic trajectories toward the ships the shield had been covering before it even faded completely. Heavy Microwave Lasers lashed down as best they could despite the atmospheric interference, and other weapons opened up as well from the hundreds of starships in orbit, all firing upon the few dozen Brute warships and Keyship sitting on the Installation. Fro John Shepard, the world darkened and slowed for a moment as an echoing, haunting phrase bounced in his head from the voice of one Liara T'Soni "This… is the way the world ends."

The Forerunner Keyship's shields flared, those inside were protected, though many outside it were not so lucky, falling victim to the vicious lashings of countless guns from above, below and all around them. The ground rumbled as the Keyship sank into it, before a beam of energy shot up and a sort of spherical portal opened, energy being fed to it by the starfish-like arms of the Installation. The Coalition ships that had been closing distance stopped in their attack vectors and backed off slightly before a shockwave reminiscent of the one generated by the Quantum Rift over Hawaii had given off rippled out from the sphere.

"What did Truth just do? Open another Quantum Rift? Activate the Rings?" Hackett questioned.

Crystal replied in a clipped tone "No, it seems he managed to keep the Portal Shield up for longer than I had anticipated, that Portal goes to the Ark…"

Thel Vadam roared in fury and punched a wall on the Pillar of Autumn's bridge (then rubbed his hurting fist and dented armour) as he watched the Keyship slip into the Portal, escorted by what had remained of the Jiralhanae fleet.

"New contact… many new contacts!" Thane shouted form the long-range sensor station he was watching. A Slipspace portal opened above Voi just before a half-destroyed CCS Cruiser barrelled out of it and crashed with a rumbling roar

"What is it, more Brutes?" Thel asked, having recognized the CCS Cruiser as potentially Covenant Loyalist before anyone else had identified what it was by visual.

"No, worse, and that's why I'm going to do this the fast way, the easy way… All Marines and civilians pull out of the city or seek nuke shelters immediately, stand by for orbital bombardment." Hannah began before Crystal intervened.

"That is not an option, Commander. That ship contains critical information that we absolutely MUST capture if we want to easily defeat Truth." Crystal stated hurriedly.

"Fine, let's do this the other way…" Hannah dialled the right code before starting "Kerrigan, is the Zerg Swarm ready to engage?" That was the favour she'd been talking about calling in before.

"We were ready three hours ago, just give me some coordinates and I can send in a large fleet, including myself, through a wormhole." The spiny-haired but still quite attractive woman replied from the screen.

"Excellent, here's the coordinates." Hannah sent them just before a subspace/quantum wormhole opened up in an area devoid of Coalition warships. Tens of thousands of speedy, small shapes emerged before the lumbering transports that were the Overlords and Overseers, followed by hundreds of thousands more of the nimble Mutalisks along with their slower evolutions, Guardians and Devourers. Kerrigan had confided to them that in her battles against Raynor's forces something had compelled her to hold back a little. Now, against an enemy almost as old as the modern Zerg definition, there was no holding back as the cloud of fliers blotted out the skies over East Africa. Sure, in combat they could not match up to Coalition units, especially Flak, but against the Flood, they could get into smaller spaces and flush out the enemy more effectively. Within a matter of scant hours, Creep had begun spreading over the land of East Africa.

Kerrigan had revealed that all Creep-secreting buildings had two options: A toxic sort of Creep carpet that mired down enemy units somewhat and killed local vegetation, or a symbiotic Creep, the original Creep. THAT Creep helped vegetation grow fast and strong, and boosted Zerg unit movement speeds by providing superior traction and elastic propulsion (in less glorified terms, bouncing the Zerg units along slightly). The Zerg had originally been a symbiotic species that lived in the host's spinal fluid and helped survival and reproduction, but after the Reapers had created today's Zerg for war, they changed. After the rebellion, they tried to go back to their symbiotic lifestyle, but fifty thousand years later, just before the Forerunner-Flood war, they had been enslaved again, this time for good with the indoctrination of the Overmind. Today's Zerg were stronger than their Flood cousins, and so the battle began anew between two ageless enemies.

* * *

><p><em>Voi, Earth, February 4, 3872<em>

Drones were morphing into buildings left and right when John Shepard and crew landed on the Creep Carpet, in this case the symbiotic variety of Creep that helped them walk faster by bouncing their steps up every time. Bands of Zerglings rushed by toward the battle front while Hydralisks, having acquired some more upgrades since Kerrigan's de-infestation, slithered forward rapidly, like sidewinders, toward the battle line. Mutalisks screeched as they passed overhead to engage their weaker cousins, the Flood Swarms in aerial dogfights. The Swarms' spines took quite a few shots to take down a Mutalisk, but the Glaive Worms the Mutalisks fired ricocheted between the Flood Swarms taking down two with each shot (the final bounce was not strong enough). Devourers cut swaths through the Flood fliers and Swarm Guardians (A/N: Yes, I'm keeping those, who's to say the Zerg can't have two aerial artillery units?) rained down super-acids. Corruptors flew support for a number of Brood Lords conducting aggressive long-range insertion operations with their Broodlings and acid munitions of their own.

A few Lurkers scrabbled by the crew every now and then. The Sangheili were talking about the implications while the Coalition soldiers were keeping eyes out for anything the Overlords or Overseers might have missed. It was not likely, since Overlords could act as Radars, able to see through passive stealth and active camouflage for quite some distance, and Overseers could even act as Omni for short ranges, almost as good as Spy Planes.

"These things look rather… monstrous." N'tho was commenting as a Hydralisk came a bit too close for comfort.

John Shepard shrugged "Yes, but would you believe that they once were a peaceful, honourable lot? Even back when the initial Zerg Collective first reached out to the Slothiens, the base species for the Hydralisks, they were only asking for a bit of genetic material, just like they did with the Zz'gash Dune Runners, base forms of the Zerglings. The Reapers twisted a relatively peaceful, elegant and not-so-ugly race into a race of biological war machines."

_We resent that._ An Overlord stated from above them, psionically, of course. Mental chitters of agreement came from the underlings, only the Reclaimers hearing them.

"Well it's true, you guys are good at fighting." Usze argued back. "You guys are holding back the Flood advance, that's really something."

_Oh, sorry for taking offence… And thanks for the compliment._ The Overlord in question soon found something better to do, flying out of sight over the tall skyscrapers.

"You know, it would have been nice if your buildings were shorter…" Kerrigan was saying on the comm. "Then again the streets are REALLY wide, so that's something, I can at least drop units in them, or even build some large buildings. We're pushing them hard and they're trying to push back, fortunately they didn't bring the numbers that would have been needed, and Creep gobbles up Flood Creep and Flood Spores like they're nothing. Zerg warriors are handling all the rest of the forms. You guys just get to that ship and get the Intel you need, we're taking care of the Flood out here."

"Alright, Kerrigan, we're going now." John replied, having brought James, Tali, and Mirala from his ground crew for the Coalition Combat Drone, Flamethrower and psychic capabilities respectively.

"Let us find their ship quickly then, make short work of those abominations." Thel growled, though his eyes were roving around and one hand was always on the handle of his Energy Sword.

"Best thing about all being of Reaper origin, none of us can reanimate one another, even mind control only works when Protoss Dark Archons are using it, otherwise it's at best temporary." Kerrigan mused over the comm. as they used their QP Packs to rapidly cover ground toward the crash zone outside the city. Well, it was more or less outside, since the CCS had managed to split itself in half by lining it up with the cutting tops of a whole column of towers, which had all survived without extra damage and zapped the Flood on them off by structural fields. Even Flood could not survive a two-kilometre-plus fall without aid.

"Heh, who cares? Wretched parasite, rise up and I'll kill you, again and again!" He shot a bunch of Infection Forms with the new "Sandblaster" mode on the Mark Three-Point-Two Gauss Sub-machine Gun he wielded in his left hand.

"Hail, honourable soldiers of the Coalition, and take heed! This is the Assault Carrier _Shadow of Intent_, flagship of the Retribution Detachment, we fear there is bad news…" Rtas Vadum called from his place. "High Charity is expected to arrive here within the next few days, we have confirmed that it has fallen, become a wretched hive… The ships of the Detachment are at your command, we owe you this much for the wretched events that have happened."

Thel had a very bad feeling all of a sudden. "How many ships broke Quarantine?"

"Three, we gave chase…" Rtas replied, biting his own mandibles in shame.

"We had a fleet of many hundreds of warships!" Thel exclaimed in shock.

"Alas, brother, the Flood, it has evolved!"

"Alright, where are these ships now?"

"One is still in Slipspace, and as you know our weapons are ineffective there, another has crashed on one of our colonies and the Parasite is beginning to spread. We arrived in orbit and were about to begin glassing when we noticed a curious purple blanket swallowing the Flood green carpet up before stopping spreading or doing anything. We have reports of monstrous-looking creatures rescuing survivors, though most are scared shitless, from the wreckage of local settlements as well as seizing those who have just been infected and cleansing them somehow of the contagion. Any ideas what the things are? I'm seeing purple carpeting on this planet as well…"

"The Zerg, a new ally of ours, I think I told you about them."

Rtas frowned "Used as a template to create the Flood and then enslaved… yeah, you told me before. Very well, I shall relay the message to do nothing untoward unless they attack us first."

"Thank you, Spec Ops Commander." Sarah Kerrigan butted in "That's one of the broods I control, do not worry, they will not do anything untoward even if you attack first, unless it is absurdly obvious it's an attack. Do not try glassing the areas, we will withdraw when we are certain there are no more Flood in the areas that were previously infected and that we've rescued absolutely everyone we could possibly rescue, and yes that does include the mortally wounded."

Rtas merely responded with a shrug "You have our thanks, Lady Kerrigan, we shall not forget this."

"Don't worry about it, just be ready to help when the Reapers arrive."

Rtas nodded "We will be if I have anything to say about it."

"That's good."

The crash site was in sight now, along with the green carpet of Flood Creep "The Elites are searching for something son, I didn't believe them when they told me." Hannah called "Liara might be on that ship! At least, that's what they think. If she is, find her, get her out!"

John Shepard didn't need telling twice as he cut a swatch through the Flood line like an ACU would tear through a piece of wet rice paper. It simply dissolved before him as he ploughed through, all guns blazing.

As they neared the ship, they saw the giant gash stretching the length of the ship's bottom hull, the ship snapped in half width-wise and spilling out more Flood forms from the split in the hull. A hole in the side allowed John's four, the Arbiter's three and six Hydralisks sent to assist to enter. More Hydralisks, Lurkers, and Zerglings milled around outside the hole, holding the salient position against Flood attacks.

"Do not be afraid. I am peace…I am salvation." The ominous voice boomed in John's head. The Hydralisks screeched collectively in fury at the sound of their ancient enemy "I am a timeless chorus. Join your voice with mine, and sing victory… everlasting!"

"The last guys to say something like that, Sovereign I believe, ended up being space dust." John commented. The Hydralisks around him screeched agreement as he picked up the Covenant hand held memory unit. He knew it might have something to do with Liara because of how he was drawn to it, though how did she pack herself in what was basically a Covenant counterpart to a 21st century USB drive?

"John!" There seemed to be relief in Liara's voice before she grew serious again "High Charity is going to get to Earth no later than…" The image fizzled out.

"Liara!" John cried in sudden alarm before the humming of a Phantom's gravity drives were heard, and then said Dropship appeared over the open chamber. The Hydralisks opened their chest plates, ready to launch the supersonic armour-piercing spines they were famous for while the bipeds present readied their guns.

343 Guilty Spark, identifiable form the dents in his casing form John's punches, floated down from the Phantom. It seemed surprised as it cried "Reclaimer!" A group of Flood Combat Forms appeared nearby, and though six fell within an instant as the Hydralisk spines cut them to pieces, the last was targeted by a beam weapon from Guilty Spark, reading as similar to an LBR Assault Bolt in strength, and shot twice before the Infection Form inside died and the corpse fell. A Hydralisk bounded forward and chopped up the corpse so it couldn't be reused "Zerg! What are they doing here?" Guilty Spark asked after a friendly fire incident led him to being pinned under an angry Hydralisk's scythes, one punched through each side of his shell, only using a little bit of each side to hold him down facing away from the snarling Zerg warrior. The other grunted and snorted to it, and it grumbled a little before letting Guilty Spark back up, having been persuaded by its peers. "I must act quickly before she suffers any further trauma!" Guilty Spark began trying to interface with the storage unit John held just before he got a vicious right hook.

"Leave her alone you scumbag before I decide to transplant my armoured boot into your eye!" John Shepard snarled.

"If we do not take this device to a safe location, somewhere I can make repairs…" Guilty Spark seemed to be trying to explain as the sounds of biological battle outside kept going.

"On the first Halo, you tried to kill me, you told your Sentinels to get rid of the rest, THAT INCLUDED LIARA, WHY SHOULD I LET YOU NEAR ANYTHING TO DO WITH HER NOW?" John Shepard was looming over Guilty Spark by so much that the Monitor was looking nearly straight up at the angry Marine.

"Protocol dictated my response! You had the Activation Index AND you were going to destroy my installation. You _did_ destroy my installation. Now, I only have one function: to help you, Reclaimer, as I always should have done."

John shook his head and placed the item in his own inventory for repair, his engineering suite could do a much better job than Spark's primitive one ever would. "Let's get up to the _Shadow of Intent_, we can discuss this mess further there. If she's not fully repaired by the time we get there, you can have a go at her."

* * *

><p><em>Shadow of Intent, Low orbit over Earth, February 4, 3872<em>

"Will it live, Oracle? Can it be saved?" Rtas Vadum asked worriedly.

"Uncertain, this storage device has suffered considerable trauma. Its matrices are…highly unstable." Guilty Spark replied as he kept trying to repair the primitive device Liara's life may well be dependent upon.

It began working again "John, High Charity is going to get to Earth no later than February 5th, I tried my best but it wasn't enough… and… it knows of the Portal ad the Ark. It asked, and I answered, for a moment of safety, this moment of safety, I loosed damnation upon the stars…" Liara whispered the last part as if to herself, the recording glitched to a halt at that.

"It's just a message…" John whispered sadly.

"Let it play out, we have one day before the Gravemind tries to get to the answer, and that should be enough with your ACU warfare, no?" Rtas asked.

Hannah nodded from her hologram "Indeed it should be enough to muster enough of a force to stop all the Flood forms on High Charity in their tracks."

"Excellent, play the rest, Oracle… no, Monitor."

"Hallelujah he got my name right…" Guilty Spark muttered before jolting the device with another beam.

"You've got a day, that's all I can buy you even fighting as hard as I possibly can. My kill count is over a hundred thousand Flood forms by now but they… Just… Keep… Coming… Get through that Portal, find the solution, and resolve the Flood problem, quickly!" Liara started looking desperate as tentacles closed in from all sides and she battled on relentlessly with her psyche alone.

"I'm… sorry." Spark stated blandly

Rtas Vadum shook his head to clear it of the awe at the amount of power he'd just witnessed, no wonder the female was so terrifying "No matter, Oracle. We've heard enough. Our fight is through the Portal, with the Brutes and the bastard Truth!" The command crew of the _Shadow of Intent_ roared in agreement.

"Alright, Hannah and her sons, plus their crew will go through the Portal with you, we're distributing better equipment to your troops as we speak." Hackett stated "The rest of us will stay here and slug it out against the Flood, we still have over half of Coalition Space left, we can fight, make a stand here."

"That sounds reasonable, how large a fleet are we talking about here?"

"We're sending the _Autumn_, the _In Amber Clad_, oh, and Sesa Refum and his lot are all on that one, you should apologize for accusing them of heresy. Other than that, we can't send anything else. The rest of the fleets are almost all occupied garrisoning the border systems and Core Worlds, even after we've stretched them to launch Assault Fleets into your space to hep combat the Covenant Loyalists."

"If you do not send more, the venture may well be doomed, and then the whole galaxy will be at risk. I may be daring but I am not stupid, taking on a Forerunner Dreadnought needs more power than that…"

"It's called a Keyship." Crystal stated, rising from her place far enough so the Covenant Separatists could see her crystalline form.

"The Shard of Divinity…" Thel Vadam whispered.

"No need to call me that, just a mix of the soul imprints of some of Liara's past lives, the Forerunner one being most dominant, of course. You can call me Crystal, otherwise it just gets confusing."

Rtas blinked, his remaining mandibles twitching "Okay then…"

"The Gravemind, now that it knows of the Ark, will try to head there. Truth foolishly did not close the Portal, so it will be 36 hours before it closes automatically." Crystal told them "High Charity will definitely reach the Ark, we just have to beat it there and set up enough stuff to beat the Flood. Kerrigan, it would be nice if you could lend us a group to engage the Flood in the internal labyrinths, ACU warfare will handle the surface since the units are too large to fit in most access ways."

"No problem." The ex-Queen of Blades responded, a large portion of the swarm she brought splitting off and forming up near the Coalition and Covenant Separatist warships.

"We need to go there ourselves too, to stop Truth from firing the Halos, no matter what. The solution Liara spoke of is the partly assembled replacement for Installation 04, in the middle of the Ark. There was a half-finished Installation there anyways, but now work has resumed and it's going to replace 04. That is the solution, draw Gravemind in and then fire it, it will eradicate even Reaper creations that are close enough, and within the Ark is definitely close enough. It will destroy the Installation and damage the Ark but that is relatively inconsequential. It can be escaped by use of a Slipspace Portal, don't worry."

Rtas frowned "Sounds… too easy, almost."

John groaned "Never say something's too easy, the universe is sadistic, it will prove you wrong."

The holograms winked out and John, James and Tali headed for the cargo hold, where they found part of the ground crew of the _Autumn_ and Sesa Refum's former "Heretics" directing the unloading of many cargo containers. They had been brought in by Continental, and now the goodies were being rapidly distributed as the soldiers present prepared for battle and, in the case of the Separatists, acclimating to the new equipment.

The crew's Restorer, which had already been unloaded of goods, took them back to the _Autumn_, which sat beside a larger cousin, the _In Amber Clad_, where Sesa's lot was based. En route, they got a transmission that was broadcast in the clear form Hannah "Operating under the assumption that Gravemind is like the Zerg Overmind, which it is I've invited some Dark Templar friends to join us. Covenant Separatists, meet the Protoss, Protoss, meet the Separatists."

"It is good to see honourable warriors throwing off the weight of lies and fighting for the truth, against the coming threat." Zeratul's visage appeared on-screen "I am Prelate Zeratul of the Nerazim, or as most call us the Dark Templar, greetings, Separatists."

"I am Arbiter Thel Vadam of the Covenant Separatists, it is an honour to meet you, Prelate."

"The honour is mine, Arbiter. Regardless of these pleasantries, The _Void Seeker_ and my small band of Dark Templar are ready to assist whenever it should become necessary."

"The _Void Seeker_? You've got my old private ship?" Crystal piped up excitedly. "Nice to see it still works after all these years… specs look about right, ooh, you need to make a few adjustments before it's just right…"

After talking about the matter of the ship ("So THAT'S why the Zerg had a hard time trying to shoot me down as I fled Ulaan!") for a while, there was silence as all parties prepared fro the battle ahead, Zeratul's crew downloading the latest armour upgrades and weapons upgrades for their Coalition-issued armour to incorporate. Zeratul decided to make small talk "I can just hear Aldaris right now: 'You represent the best of us, and all our hopes and dreams go with you, En Taro Adun, Executor, En Taro Adun, Tassadar.'" That brought a few chuckles as the crews prepped for the oncoming storm.

Ten minutes later, on a signal from Hannah, the whole lot of them accelerated forward into and through the Portal at Voi. One Coalition Heavy Destroyer, one Coalition Heavy Cruiser, one Covenant Assault Carrier, one Covenant Battleship, eight CCS Cruisers, and one old, old ship headed into the unknown, carrying with them the hopes and dreams of an entire galaxy.

* * *

><p>AN: Short, but to the point, now that the other races have begun to mix things up, we'll see how different the Ark will be. Here's a hint: Not That Much.

DISCUSSION: I need a girl's name that means something along the lines of blue and is NOT Crystal or Sapphire. And yes it's for the other twin Liara is eventually going to have.

DISCUSSION: Red Mage 06 has a Halo fanfic called **halo Finishing the Fight** that lands the _Forward Unto Dawn_ in the _Neverwinter Nights_ franchise world with Johnson, Chief, Miranda, and Orna as Arbiter alive inside. It talks about how they take sides in the hostile world to help it while awaiting rescue, and partly for something to do. I find that it consists overwhelmingly of bullying the locals, especially after a Covenant scout ship crashes with friendly troops. I'd like to say that, with the physical appearance I have for Tali, I wouldn't be surprised if a) Blizzard Entertainment does not exist in this universe and b) Some of the Quarian population was moved in the aftermath of the Great Winter War by a Monitor concerned about their survival to a Shield World that is just a plain old normal planet with a shield generator network. These people would have a maintained genetic linkage to Quarians by "alien abductions" and transplantation of people to maintain gene flow and continuity, despite being different chiralities (bi-adaptability, remember?). And of course, this world can be named… I don't know… **Azeroth?** (Gonna have to scale down the night elves and make them the same heights as humans, and give the women more practical armour though.) Just food for thought, then again, we have enough "beating up the locals" in this universe so I really doubt I'll write it. Still, it would be interesting to see from the perspective of a basically pre-industrial civilization (not so much "We're so far behind!" as "How the fuck can that even exist?"). That would bear a resemblance to **World of WarCraft Halo** which is by Freedom Guard (in the Halo and WarCraft X-over section of FFN).

**IF YOU SUPPORT ME STARTING TO PUT UP PROL (Pokémon: Rise of Legends) BEFORE I FINISH THIS FIC THEN SAY SO IN A REVIEW!** I CANNOT and I mean CANNOT put up the Star Wars cross AT LEAST until ME 3 comes out, so… yeah, I'm going to have to get into PROL sooner or later, since even the Ivan Brackman side-story chain that's mostly in the A-Y Chronicles (I feel that's a good place due to big brother syndrome from Jaran) stretches into the time span of the SW fic. I'm going to be really sweating it with PROL though, since I haven't played through even a single Pokémon game. Bulbapedia tells me enough for me to handle writing it, though updates will be slower than here at least until Arc 4, since I'll be in unfamiliar territory and have to acclimate. That is why I'm asking if I should start posting earlier than I originally planned, because it'll update relatively slowly. I only have 2 chapters fully written and no really definite plan. Some modifications from the standard Pokémon games also exist, so yeah… slow writing ahead for me on that one.

REVIEW!


	32. One Keyship to Bring Them All…

A/N: Thank you king1367, but I was asking for blue NAMES that are NOT Sapphire or Crystal. Aqua, Cerulean, and Indigo do not sound like girls' names to me, even if they were, I'd like to say that they won't be used either fore reasons that shall remain temporarily personal. Can you imagine naming your baby girl Navy or Ultramarine (doomed to join the military)?

I am DEFINITELY continuing Koprulu Sector as soon as HOTS comes out, well, okay, so it might be about a month after so I can read enough SC Wiki articles and maybe play it on a friend's computer to get a feel for how the upgrade aka mutation system works. I'll also more or less wrap up whatever project I have going at the time to get back to KS. But remember that it will come before these events in terms of timeline! (I attach date stamps on most section changes for good reason…)

* * *

><p>Chapter 32: One Keyship to Bring Them All…<p>

_Shadow of Intent, Over Upper Surface of the Ark, February 4, 3872_

"Brute ships ahead, 300,000 kilometres, staggered line! Shipmaster, they outnumber us, three-to-one!" The sensor officer reported.

Rtas shook his head in disbelief "This is going to be a joke… all ships, coordinate fire, Prioritize destroyers first, then Cruisers and after that the heaviest warships present." That would maximize number of plasma projectors taken out in minimal time. "Hannah, can you cover us?"

"What do you think I docked these T2 Flying Shield Generators to my outer hull for? I'm deploying them en masse to cover your ships while the bombers give them a good nutcracker crush." Hannah replied. "We've got enough Geminis and Coronas out to DESTROY their fighter screen, tell your pilots not to waste their lives, the Zerg will take down anything we don't, your Seraphs will be more useful for ground support. Yes, I just admitted it, our munitions tend to be excessively powerful for ground support and get overkill. I can't afford deploying any T1 Attack Bombers or Gunships right now because I have limited hangar room. We'll take up the job of slicing those things apart. Miranda and Jedore have already gated down to the surface to establish bases. Truth's ship isn't taking part in the attack, he must've gone to ground… but they're onto him. Drop the ground troops after the space battle, by then we'll have cleared enough turf of anything larger than them for them to actually be useful."

"Good strategy, Division Commander, I see why you are feared." Rtas nodded approvingly. "Very well, I will hand over command of this operation to you, since you know your side of the operation so much better and know the general capabilities of Covenant warships as well."

"Thank you, Rtas… distance has closed to three-quarters light second, will be engaging with HMLs at half light-second. Tell your officers to be ready to listen to what their computers tell them to. I'll be uploading commands directly to their stations."

"Cybran implants, how… unnatural" Someone muttered on the bridge of the _Shadow of Intent_ as battle stations kept sounding throughout the 5-kilometre Assault Carrier.

"It has allowed us to maintain a total democracy with semi-socialism, and not in the bad way. It prevents fanaticism by moderate rationality, and so on, also, combat command and reaction time is much better. There are many more benefits but I won't bother going on to someone who is dumb enough to insult their op commander." Hannah growled, her circuits pulsing, before going back into the battle, issuing commands and coordinating firing solutions on the onrushing Brute fleet. Even Kerrigan's Zerg listened, their Queen personally being onboard the _Autumn_'s bridge evac Gemini next to Hannah. The creatures of war formed attack formations among the Coalition-Covenant fleet and prepared to leap to the attack as soon as the command was given.

"Understood, Fleet Mistress" The Major Domo replied sullenly.

"Excellent, now that we're near one-half light-second… firing HMLs and Loas." The missiles leapt away from the flanks of the two Coalition heavy ships present in droves before their trajectories curved to fly forward toward the covenant formation. Nearly invisible (for there was little dust and gas to deflect/diffract it) beams of microwave energy stabbed out through space at the Covenant Loyalist ships which simply could not dodge in time. With all twenty-eight Heavy Microwave Lasers of the two heavy ships focused on one CCS Cruiser it only took a few short seconds to burn through and gut the ship from stem to stern. The fact that Quarnon Cannons aka Phasers also worked at about that range and Ultrachromatic Beam Generators did the same did not help the matter as they picked away at any and all hull guns while the main body of the ship was being horribly lacerated.

By that time both fleets had closed to Plasma Projector range, which also served as Plasma Accelerator and Dual Plasma Beam range for the Coalition warships. The latter served as point defence guns against small, mid-range warships like the Triple Gauss Cannons, Medium Oblivion Cannons, and any and all Proton Cannons did on Coalition warships. Quarnon Cannons and Ultrachromatic Beam Generators served as long-range anti-picket and anti-fighter duty respectively. Glowing blue-white lines connected the fleets while another Brute warship was roasted by the HMLs. The _Void Seeker_ had already cloaked and been stationed far above the plane of the battle, since it was a heavyweight fight and the smaller ship only had the tonnage to last a few rounds at best.

The Brutes had been expecting a tide of T3 Strategic Bombers to come bearing down on them from ahead while their frontal sensors were still dazzled by the mighty exchange of fire and fury between the fleets. They also watched their asses and flanks just in case. But none of that happened. Even while they were pummelled by capital ship fire and shot back at the rapidly manoeuvring Separatist warships, the evasive manoeuvres they were doing proved useless as they were hit over the head and kicked in the balls simultaneously by hundreds of Strategic Bombers.

What most tacticians failed at in space combat, and what set Rtas, Orna, Thel Vadam, and the Coalition's six top commanders (Rhiza, Dostya, and the Elite Four) apart, was to think in three dimensions. For some reason, most tacticians tended to think in terms of the ecliptic plane of a system as opposed to the three-dimensional space above and below it. Hannah's bottom fist gave the Brute ships a good uppercut from the direction of the Ark's surface while the top group clubbed them over the head. Another two Brute-controlled warships cooked off while one Elite-controlled ship lost shields and was immediately swarmed by Asylum T2 Flying Shield Generators (same as the normal version, now that hover engines had been upgraded). Those protected it from two successive Plasma Projector shots as Hannah ordered it to retreat. The crew's momentary hesitation was halted when the Pillar of Autumn literally dropped in front of them and blocked the next shot before Hannah roared at them "MOVE YOUR ASSES BACK SO YOUR DAMNED SHIELDS CAN RECHARGE! The Seraphs are going to be here soon! Get out of the way!" They obeyed, pulling back a bit to recuperate while the Asylums kept covering them.

"The Seraphs are here, Kerrigan, cover the Covenant Separatist ships, we can handle fighters just fine with all our Flak and Zealot SIM batteries, make sure the Separatist ships are okay, happy hunting!" Kerrigan snorted in response at that before the attacking Brute-controlled Seraphs were surprised by thousands of Mutalisks, Corruptors and Devourers, all equipped with the newest evolutionary advantages Kerrigan had accumulated for them. The Swarm Guardians and Brood Lords took care of any and all boarding craft and stragglers from extreme ranges while the fighter-type Zerg flyers mixed it up with the horde of Seraphs. Gemini ASFs and Restorer T3 AA Gunships helped out as much as they could, but their numbers were too few considering how much of the hangar space had been taken by Strategic Bombers.

"My Dreadnought cannot rise. Even now it is engaged; turn death into war for this new world. Do not relent until the heretic ships are smashed!" Truth broadcast from wherever he was at the moment.

"What a joke, the thing's too damaged to go anywhere now… he's less strategically competent than Hitler was, and that's saying something!" Hannah muttered while listening in to Brute communications as well.

"NOOOO! Hit the Carrier! Kill the Half Jaw and his crew!" the Brute Commander was yelling as another pair of his ships was torn to pieces by plasma projector and torpedo fire. Fusillades of the blue-whit munitions were traded between the fleets. Most of the incoming ones never hit the Coalition line thanks to the Asylums in position to absorb a shot and then start rebooting shields. "Keep their backs at fraud. Drive the heretic ships back to the Portal!"

"That's an epic fail of an idea." Hannah muttered just before she released a fresh wave of high-powered death, noting that Covenant ship shields seemed rather ineffective against organic and especially acid-based projectiles much like normal (non-infantry) Coalition shields. Unfortunately for the Brutes, they didn't have structural fields to shrug off the splatters, and the Devourer acid spores began to eat through their hulls. The Corruptors' slime slowed down and damaged the Seraphs, making them easy picking for the Mutalisks, and the sheer numbers of the latter made targeting effectively impossible once the two fleets met. So far the trade was standing at five Brute ships destroyed and three disabled for two de-shielded Sangheili warships, a good ratio, since the de-shielded ones were surrounded by enough Asylums to regenerate their shields anyways.

"Their cruisers mixed with ours! Watch your fire!" The Brute Commander barked, but it was too last, since one Brute warship had already been speared through and destroyed by another's plasma projector when the _In Amber Clad_ had slipped between them under Jaran Kael's piloting.

The space battle was starting to turn into a stalemate after the initial charges with both fleets keeping their distance and doing their best to dodge one another's fire. However, time was running out, so Hannah messaged Rtas "Now that we have aerospace superiority over the expected op zone, I'm sending down the ground infantry crew just in case we have to deal with installation warfare. Sarah, how are the colonies coming along?"

"Excellent, the amount of solar radiation the Ark gets is sufficient for Creep photosynthesis to proceed at good enough efficiency to sustain a colony with bio-energy even without mining for Liberiam Crystals much." The crystals were high in potential energy and minerals, ergo all the Koprulu races used it to at least an extent. The spiny-haired woman frowned "Seems Brutes might have tripped a defence system, I'm picking up hostile Sentinels engaging the apes, but they don't seem to be targeting my Zerg."

"I'm dropping my boys here, where they can get a proper vehicle." Hannah muttered, issuing the commands to the appropriate Gemini.

"Like what?" Sarah Kerrigan inquired.

"I don't know what Miranda has for them, to be honest."

* * *

><p><em>Ark, February 4, 3872<em>

"Is this a joke, Miranda? If so it's REALLY not that funny." John Shepard deadpanned as the crew stared up at the grey and blue slab best known as a Fatboy. It only had two hard-points (front bumper) thanks to the way the guns were arranged, the rear unit production alcove, and the air staging pad. Still, two was in a way enough as all they needed to add was more Flak. The Fatboy already had good artillery cannons, could trample non-experimentals in its path, and came with a shield generator built-in (though this generation was FAR more physically durable and had stronger shields, even in terms of relative comparisons, than the Seraphim War version, which had been absurdly flimsy).

"No, it's not a joke. There's a structure that looks like a Cartographer some distance on the other side of the wall, and there's a whole crapload of Brutes between us and it. I think it's a good idea to show those overweight apes what a real Fatboy can pull of huh?" Miranda actually had a touch of a genuine grin on her face when she said that.

John nodded to himself "Well though out, let's get rolling, we need to get a good fix on Truth's location." He clamoured aboard through the boarding airlock directly between the two forward hard-point alcoves. Of course, it was locked down when in combat from intruders, but that was beside the point as the huge Mobile Factory rolled into motion, fading from sight as active camouflage kicked in and passive stealth kept its location concealed from the Covenant, more or less…

A cloud of Sentinels followed them along outside the condensed (pulled-in) shield bubble of the Fatboy as it rolled across the ground at about 200 km/h, flattening the terrain behind its huge weight and under its mighty tracks. The four Gauss Cannon turrets, each housing three relatively short barrels (compared to a Summit-class T3 Battleship) swung forward as targets began getting close to being in range. The forward two fired a short moment before the rear pair spat out their own six huge shells. A second later the guns volleyed again into the distance, and again, and again… a hail of destructive power raining down on whatever foe was unfortunate enough to be at the site of the bombardment.

"Well, now that we've carpet bombed our side of the wall clear, let's make our own road." John muttered to himself before targeting one section of the wall with the powerful, long-ranged guns of the Fatboy artillery-style. The second set of gigantic high explosive shells left the barrels before the first set found their targets, impacting at extreme speed before going off. The Fatboy was rolling closer, and by the time it crested the hill near the wall a whole section lay in ruins, the Fatboy crunching through whatever remained to pass through.

"Fatboy beats Wall!" Mirala commented.

"Fatboy beats Covenant Anti-air gun!" James added as they passed the thoroughly mangled remains of one of the well-armoured turrets.

"How about we leave it at Fatboy beats everything?" Tali asked.

John nodded "I agree with Tali."

"Please, use caution; avoid collateral damage! While this facility appears quite durable on the surface, no doubt there are delicate facilities below the facade…" Guilty Spark was saying as John finally let him hover about inside the Fatboy's cockpit. Then he saw the small gap in the plating of the Ark that the 200 meter Mobile Factory had rolled over effortlessly, now mostly filled in with wreckage of the wall that had sat over it before. "…Oh my… this vehicle is truly quite powerful, better than even Forerunner vehicles… armour, weapons, everything… The Sentinels are behaving oddly… ah, sudden clarity! These Sentinels were trying to deny access to the lower levels of this facility. A wise decision, given the Meddlers' preference for…destructive acquisition."

"This is why I locked you up." John sighed at Spark's babbling. There was a crunching as the crew turned their attention forward again only to find that the remains of a wrecked Scarab had just found their way under the right forward set of treads, being ground into a pancake of scrap metal in but a moment as the Fatboy rolled over it at high speed.

The Wraiths remaining in the area were jokes as the Fatboy ploughed through them, the Hell's Fury Riot Guns on either side, largest of their series, killing one Wraith per shell, which meant three kills per side per second. The Brute defence lines were pathetic before the tens of thousands of tons of high speed armour, weapons and collision mass the Fatboy represented.

"I opened the portal to this hallowed place, this shelter from Halo's fire, in the hopes that more of our Covenant would join us. Alas, save for a rabble of Heretics and their _Demon_ allies, we are all that remains on this new world. So we must temper joy and sorrow in our hearts, for those who were left behind." Truth broadcast from the intercepted comms and brought laughs from everyone. In a way, the Zerg were "demons" to many…

The _Shadow of Intent_'s signature began to enter atmosphere on the strategic display John had set up on the holo-table beside him. James relayed the fact and John nodded just before Rtas sent a communiqué "Truth's fleet lies in ruins with minimal losses on our side… other than the starfighters and Zerg fliers, they took significant losses. Your mother's tactics won out in the end, now if you could find where the liar hides for us, then I might have the pleasure of placing my boot between his gums!"

"We'll know soon enough, Shipmaster." Hannah sent over. "Boys, get up the spire and the Arbiter's five-soldier ground crew will join you at the top to help you guys get into the facility. There's plenty of infantry on the spire but it's labelled as a non-target for the Fatboy, so get out and mop then up."

Both of the twins nodded "Will do Mom." Hannah nodded back before the channel cut out.

"Alright everyone, let's get groundside and blast our way up the outside of that damned tower." John led the crew out of the airlock and immediately took fire from Jackal snipers. The Fatboy's towering shield made the Beam Rifles laughable at best as John casually fired back with his LBR in Sniper Mode. Everyone else was also counter-sniping, even Tali, since Shotguns were that in terms of close-range hitting power and muzzle velocity only, and that was relative to other Coalition infantry small-arms. Mirala had elected the Gauss LMG for this job, but armour-piercing rounds combined with the scope (standard to all Coalition weapons but removable) made it work as a mid-range sniper just fine. After they'd picked off every hostile they could get from inside the Fatboy's shields, John used the Fatboy to make a circuit around the tower, cleaning everything they could see off it before he led the crew to the bottom of the spire. Hacking their way up was relatively simple, as there weren't that many Covenant left and Tali's flamethrower was excellent for forging their way up the spire's balconies and walkways.

A Restorer swooped in and dropped Vadam, N'tho, Usze, One and Two onto the top landing of the building once they reached that position. They were decked out in Light Sangheili Armour while the Unggoy had Light Unggoy Armour "Well met, Marines." The Arbiter commented before Guilty Spark, who'd accompanied the crew, opened the entrance door, allowing the crew to enter the facility. The orb then floated to the next door, but seemed to have some trouble unlocking it.

"Hey, what gives?" Tali asked, one eye on her HUD Radar/Omni displays for threats

"It seems I've… crossed a circuit." Spark muttered.

"Well, let me have a look." Tali took a step forward before a blue beam splattered off her over-shield, doing minimal damage before it swept out toward the sky thanks to a certain orb getting a powerful uppercut.

"Listen you little bastard, you can either learn to talk, or we'll just use our own can-opening mechanisms, and that might include importing Hydralisks from the Zerg colonies being established on this Ark of yours, but do NOT try to sting us again!" James Shepard growled, holding Spark by the back of his casing and hitting him on the door with every word.

"I did not want her to come to any harm." Spark said, sounding rather rattled, which he was at the moment.

"You've got a funny way of showing it." Tali grumbled, she couldn't help but grin while watching James have a staring match with the Monitor.

"This is your last warning Monitor, you've tried to harm us more than once, try it again and we'll see just how far ahead of the Forerunners our weapons technology is. I know the Forerunners are much better at building grandiose things, but we are more practical." James hissed before letting the Monitor go back to work on the door. It took a while of beeping (in James' mind it was "beep"-ing) around before it opened the door.

"Excellent! This way." Guilty Spark led them forward. Apparently the vibration dampeners here were quite excellent, since there were many Jackals lounging around sleeping while a Brute Captain was taking a piss in a corner of the room.

"Slothful runts, kill them as they sleep." Thel hissed.

"Everyone activate passive and active camouflage." John ordered, and they did, creeping stealthily through the room delivering ventilation to brains via the back of the skull.

"Come, Reclaimer. All you seek is close at hand." Guilt Spark stated, leading them down to another floor of the facility once they'd killed all the Covenant Loyalists present. It was another silent massacre as the crew killed everything in their path. "Your goal is just below!" Spark announced cheerily.

On the third level down, One tripped and fell flat on his face at an inopportune time, causing the Brutes and Jackals in the room to perk up at the sound of the Grunt's gun clattering to the ground before he could snatch it back up. "Fire at will! Engage, engage!" John ordered over the comms as the Brutes fired indiscriminately in the general direction of the noise, the shots absorbed into thin air telling them they'd found something. They didn't find it long as several grenades stuck them and detonated before gauss rounds and laser bolts tore through them, Phasic weapons blasting them apart and plasma bayonets where applicable slicing them up.

The crew headed outside after recuperating over-shields and some shielding where applicable. "The Cartographer!" Spark exclaimed, sighting a terminal "Come, it awaits your approval."

"Well?" Thel asked as John went over the controls, which were curiously in plain English, as if he had been here before, from his past lives' flashbacks, he probably had.

"There, that should do it." The hologram changed to that of the Milky Way "That's our galaxy… we're well beyond the rim."

Guilty Spark bobbed in a nod "Two to the eighteenth light years from the center, to be precise."

The hologram changed to a map of the Ark. "Spark, where are we exactly?"

"Here!" Spark replied happily.

"And where is Truth?" _I REALLY hope this thing is strong enough to take multiple strategic detonations…_

"Near one of the Ark's superluminal communication arrays, I'm afraid. Unfortunate. The Meddler has triggered a barrier; a defensive perimeter around the Ark's core." Guilty Spark was as cheerful as ever.

"Incoming enemy air!" Vadam warned before a pair of missiles soared into the distance from the Restorer still sitting at the top of the tower, followed a second later by another pair "Scratch that… more hostile air!"

"The barrier will be difficult to disable… how odd that my makers would place such a comprehensive defence around a single…Oh my. We must get past that barrier! Or the Meddler will destroy it all!"

"The Restorer will take care of anything the Covenant can hope to throw at it short of a corvette or prowler." John stated simply.

The crew's Fatboy was still waiting outside, the Flak weapons already starting to pound away, providing support for the Restorer that was killing Banshees with absurd ease and Phantoms within a couple volleys. Guilty Spark was talking about the original Halo as they battered their way down the building, all nine of them, meeting huge numbers of Covenant on the way. "Protocol dictates action. The Installation was my responsibility, if my suspicions are correct… no! I must not jump to conclusions."

The most annoying thing about the fight was probably the Chieftain with the gravity hammer, which resulted in Two being used as an improvised projectile to make John Shepard's step falter only for a moment before he lashed back. As they butchered their way through the Brutes, accruing a few dents and scratches of their own along the way, John noted the huge swarm of Sentinels hovering outside around the Fatboy and how easy they would be to swat with the two Bangers in the hard-points. "Guys, after we're done with these, be ready to make a run for the Fatboy! Then we can eliminate those Sentinels!"

"No, don't shoot! They mean us no harm! Those units have a priority task." Spark yelled as he ducked under a missed Beam Rifle shot.

"Oh, yeah? And what might _that_ be?" N'tho snarled as he slashed a Brute's Spike Carbine in half before cutting the beast's head off with his newly acquired weapon's plasma bayonet.

They were outside now, a Sentinel coming up to John Shepard and examining him before doing the same with James and Tali. "I really can't say… not for sure. But if you allow me to find a terminal closer to the Core—"

"No, Monitor, we must keep the Prophet of Truth firmly in our sights." Thel interrupted Spark's words.

"But what about that… thing you had with you on Installation 04? Her solution to the Flood? With more data, I—"

John sighed sadly "The Arbiter's right. We have priorities too. Until we kill Truth, stop the Rings from firing… we won't have time for anything else." _Forgive me, Liara… forgive me… if only I could forgive myself for this…_ The crew piled into the Restorer before it flew off, leaving the Fatboy in Miranda's command again to maraud around and blow stuff up.

James clasped his twin's shoulder plate with a hand and gave him a nod before letting go. John merely nodded back before sitting down and falling into silence.

* * *

><p>AN: Still no one has said yes or no to putting up Pokémon: Rise of Legends… So I stopped waiting and began posting! **It's one of the crew's past cycles! GO READ IT!**

REVIEW! (Here AND There, Ideally)


	33. …And In the Darkness Bind Them

A/N: **Hewhoislost** was really lost… my fics have nothing to do with other authors' fics, not really, I just said it would be _similar_ to those fics in theme if I dumped the crew on a primitive world and let them help the natives out.

* * *

><p>Chapter 33: …And In the Darkness Bind Them<p>

_Ark, February 5, 3872 (around 1:00 AM)_

"We hit these three generators, and the barrier will fall?" Hannah asked over the comm.

Guilty Spark bobbed in a nod "A small section, yes."

Miranda interjected "Why don't we do this the easier way? I've got a number of strategic missile launchers ready and waiting to fire on the barrier."

Hannah nodded approvingly "I agree with Miranda, if we just need to destroy the three generators, why don't we do this the extremely easy way? Strategic Missile bombardment is much simpler than anything else."

"If we're gonna do that we might as well just use plasma projectors, right?" the Arbiter suggested.

"My ships are ready to begin bombardment." Rtas stated "We will be able to control our fire better than your strategic missiles will, upon punching through we will stop, but your missiles are more likely to flatten a large area under the barrier as well. The Prophet's shield will be as a drum for us, by the time it falls, he will beg for mercy."

"Well, whatever you say guys, I'm shelling those generators with my shipboard Mavors." Hannah stated casually "Shells away, barrier will be down thirty seconds from now. Spark believes Truth can activate the rings at any time, if he does, Earth, every being in the galaxy, Halo will kill them all."

Crystal elected not to state the fact that the Ark REQUIRED a Reclaimer to activate, since that would reveal her presence to Guilty Spark and her identity would be revealed before she wanted it to be. Besides, urgency was good for the soul (though not necessarily that of her current incarnation).

The barrier fell as the three Mavor shells struck home and blew large craters where the generators had been. The Forerunners had done a very bad job of planning their defences… unless it was designed to hold stuff in instead. "Now, Prophet…your end has come." Rtas growled as the _Shadow of Intent_ advanced toward Truth's location.

"Slipspace rupture opening! It's… High Charity! Excellent…" Hannah grinned wickedly before her eyes widened. "Careful Rtas, city fragment inbound!"

"High Charity…? By the Gods! Brace for impact!" Rtas cried before a large piece stabbed into the _Shadow of Intent_'s hull, off-center and making the vessel list for a moment before it righted itself. The shard stopped halfway through and no doubt was spilling Flood into the Assault Carrier, so…

"Sending you reinforcements, Zerg can't be infected by the Flood so they can clear your ship without risk." Kerrigan stated abruptly, the Zerg Drop Pod launchers in the general vicinity firing their pods up onto the hull of the Shadow of Intent where they broke open to loose Zerglings and Hydralisks and some Roaches. Mutalisks were already scouring the Assault Carrier's outer hull for flood, as they could control their Glaive Worms' power and bouncing ability (including activation or no). Corruptors and the heavier, slower and more powerful Devourers were hunting down other flying fragments and cleansing them with super-acids before they could reach the ground. Swarm Guardians and Brood Lords bombarded and dropped Zerg warriors into the midst of the crash sites the aerospace superiority units had not been able to reach in time. The fighter/attacker Mutalisks wheeled through the skies over the Ark in prodigious numbers as High Charity crashed onto the super-structure. Several Hatcheries and some nearby structures were crushed under the falling city, but numerous Nydus Worms erupted in the Zerg colonies around it and Zerg warriors began to emerge even as Lurkers and Spine Crawlers implanted themselves into positions to hold back the sea of green that spilled from High Charity with waves of subterranean spines and Impaler Tentacles. If it wasn't for the non-permanent nature of the desired defence line, the more durable, stealthier and long-ranged Sunken Colonies would have been deployed instead of the Crawlers for defence against the heavier Flood forms. In this case it didn't matter much as the Flood wave crashed up against the Zerg defences, roaring, slashing and firing whatever lethal implements of death they had.

The Zerg lashed back with claws, teeth and spines before the Zerg ground forces, a similar tide of purple carapaced backs, crashed into the green sea. Hundreds of Zerglings and Combat forms died every second, and even Hydralisks and roaches fell by the dozens, duking it out with Flood ranged forms and Tank Forms. Mutalisks, Spore Crawlers and Corruptors did their best to hunt down the Flood Dispersal Pods but the combination of armour and flight speed allowed many to land all over High Charity. Anything trying to land in a Zerg or Coalition zone was vaporized in mid-air while the few that landed, in the Zerg regions, were rapidly destroyed.

"Shipmaster, what's your status?"

"Significant damage! Weapon systems disabled! Zerg and our warriors are clashing with Flood around the area of impact, we are containing the enemy but would appreciate a pull-out of that piece of hull stabbing into us…"

"Move to a safe distance, stay away from the Flood areas." Hannah commanded "We'll come and pull that knife out of your ship right away with the _Autumn_'s transport clamps. The Zerg will be able to completely clean your ship of Flood, but until they relax visibly and start lounging around doing nothing, do not let your guards down."

"Understood… why would the Parasite come _here_?" Rtas wondered, obviously irritated at the organisms in question.

"The Ark is out of range of all the active installations! Priority: We must contain this outbreak, before—" Guilty Spark was obviously alarmed.

"No! First, we stop Truth. Then we deal with the Flood." Hannah snapped back.

"Quickly, I must see the point of impact; assess the damage done to the Ark." Guilty Spark said. John sighed and showed him the relevant holographic footage of the massive organic vs. organic battle raging around the wreckage of High Charity over hundreds of kilometres of front lines.

"Shipmaster's Carrier is out of commission, boys. I need you to take down Truth. The Flood's just going to put pressure on him; accelerate his plans. Punch through the cliffs! Get inside that Citadel!" Hannah ordered them. "No time to bring in experimentals, you guys are on your own, our weapons are occupied with supporting the Zerg forces. The Flood numbers are overwhelming even against the Zerg…" The CZARs carving paths through the Flood ranks in synchronized formations were helping greatly in that respect… and so were the Soul Rippers and Fatboys providing artillery-style support.

The Restorer cleared a cliff and immediately opened up with its Quad Light Laser, tearing up the terrain they passed over, and more importantly the Covenant units there. "I'm counting two scarabs, repeat TWO Scarabs!" John reported to Hannah.

"Shockers are inbound, after those shields go down they should be easy pickings for the Restorer." Hannah replied before going back to managing the long-front battle around High Charity. "Spark has found a way into the Citadel. This platform is it." She highlighted it for them.

John order the Restorer down there and grabbed his guns "Alright, let's do this thing." He exited with Laser Battle Rifle and Gauss Light Machine Gun blazing away into the awaiting Covenant ranks. As the other soldiers fanned out behind him, it didn't take long before the platform was cleared.

"The Flood scales the Citadel's far wall. Activate this bridge, Oracle!" Thel demanded "The Prophet will die by _OUR_ hands, not theirs."

"_Calamity!_ If only we had more time!" Spark murmured as he opened the door. John and Thel got in before it slammed shut. "Well, it seems we'll be holding this platform from any attacks from this side…"

"James, hold that position, alright?"

"Sure, we'll be ready to blast a path open for you when it's time for you to leave, okay?" James replied over the comm.

"My faithful…stand firm! Though our enemies crowd around us, we tread the blessed path. In a moment, I will light the rings! And all who believe…shall be saved!"

"I've gotten reports from Hackett that the Halo covering most of Coalition Space has been successfully destroyed." Hannah called over the comm. "04 was the one near the galactic core, so that's another one down. Fleets are bombarding and tearing up the ones near Citadel Space as we speak, though this may start the biggest diplomatic incident in the galaxy, there won't BE a galaxy left if we don't do it. The 54th Assault Fleet is taking down the one in Covenant Space that's nearer the Coalition, the far one… not enough time to get there yet." The view screens around them lit up and a colossal elevator leading up was soon discovered by the Arbiter and John "How close are you boys?"

"Not close enough." John growled. Somehow, the Prophet had captured some humans, and would thus be able to start the rings. Both soldiers engaged their QP Packs immediately, starting the flight up the elevator shaft.

"I admit, I need your help… But that secret dies with all the rest." Truth's voice was picked up by their audio sensors and amplified.

With a smashing noise and tinkling of glass John and the Arbiter broke through the elevator shaft "You delay the inevitable. One of you _will_ light the rings." Truth was saying to the captives. "Brutes, form a barrier! Stop them!" He then turned to the two soldiers who were looking down the barrels of many Fuel Rod Guns and Brute Shots. "You cannot hope to kill them all!"

"You're right, I can't kill all your Brutes fast enough to stop you, but…" John rocked back and forth on his feet for a moment.

"Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion… _steeled_ themselves for what _needed_ to be done. I see now why they left you behind. You were _weak_...and gods must be _strong_." Truth snarled before he yanked a fourth captive out from behind his gravity throne, a frightened child, and forced her hand down on the panel with a smug grin before John could swing his aim away from the three other captives. Immediately, the Control Terminal began to light up and Truth raised his arms in triumph. Only four of the seven rings lit up, two of them fizzling dark halfway through and 04 not at all, before a thunderous crash shook the room.

"Do not shoot, but listen! We must work jointly for now or ALL will perish. Only _you_ can halt what he has set in motion." Gravemind boomed through the Tank Forms that were starting to battle the Brutes present while Truth hid himself behind the pedestal at the far end of the very long room. Obviously, he knew John would want to try to snipe him.

"How could I have known the Parasite would follow? Undoubtedly this is the Heretics' doing! A final, bitter curse. Clear evidence of treachery long hidden!" Truth cackled maniacally "So far are we along the path, that I must strain to hear the clumsy patter of their pursuit. Know this my brothers, they may foul the way with their charred and broken bones, but they will not stop the Journey."

John and Thel stopped fighting at the second bridge, instead electing to boost themselves above and beyond the Brutes, leaving a trail of grenades to carpet-bomb them as they flew past. "Can you see, Arbiter? The moment of salvation is at hand." Truth gloated, raising his hands like a classic megalomaniac at the sight of the rings lighting up.

"It will not last!" Thel growled, grabbing Truth by the throat.

"Your kind…never believed in the promise of the sacred rings." Truth wheezed out.

The Arbiter shook his head sadly "Lies for the weak, beacons for the deluded. WE will have OUR revenge, on a Prophet, not a plague!"

"My feet tread the path. I shall become a god!" Truth began laughing hysterically.

"You will be food, nothing more." Gravemind boomed, the Flood having finally defeated the Brutes present at extreme cost to their own thanks to the heavy weapons. The four human civilians were unharmed, though looking worriedly at the Flood, which stayed a safe distance away from them. Of course, they wisely put the Marines between themselves and the Flood.

John slapped the "Abort" button of the console and it shut down almost comically easily "_No!_" Truth screeched as Thel wrenched him out of his throne by the neck "I…am…_Truth!_ The _voice_ of the Covenant!"

"And so, you must be silenced." Thel growled before throwing the San'Shyuum down in front of John Shepard "HE had harmed you far worse than he could ever hope to have harmed me, Demon, do with him what you will."

John's helmet lights revealed a big, deadly grin as he shot Truth with a pod that would imprison him for the next month without more power input.

The ground began to tremble as massive tentacles rose around the platform of the room. Gravemind was laughing as the Flood began to advance. "Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside…corpses shift and offer room, a fate you _must_ abide!" He boomed menacingly as Combat Forms dropped from the tentacles.

"We trade one villain for another." Thel Vadam growled as the two soldiers stood back to back, weapons and plasma blades, Bayonet and Sword alike, at the ready.

"I expected that." Kerrigan stated through the comm. before dozens of Zerg Drop Pods smashed through the ceiling and discharged Hydralisks, Roaches, Lurkers and Banelings. The latter two filleted enemies with their massive claws or rammed the giant tentacles and detonated, destroying them and burning the stumps away with super-acids.

A quartet of Roaches formed a defensive perimeter around the four human civilians, obviously of OC origin by their lack of factional insignia or even a Coalition shoulder badge. They spat a ring of acid that popped every Infection Form that came near, while spraying acid onto any other forms that approached, using their own thick carapaces to fend off Ranged form attacks. The Ranged forms were soon counter-sniped by the Hydralisks whenever there was a brief respite from going hand to hand with Tank forms.

"I'm a thief…but I keep what I steal." Liara's voice echoes in John's head only for a moment before the world cleared again and his twin's voice filled his ears. An overlord's tendrils were hanging down from above.

"Get the civilians onboard the Overlord hovering over the room you're in! Then help the Zerg beat back the Flood!" It felt like he was yelling at himself, and so the two soldiers acted.

"Guys, get on the overlord, it will take you to safety!" John shouted as he herded the four frightened IC humans toward the tendrils, which wrapped around them securely and carried them up before a hole opened in the Overlord's side and they were put inside. Normally Overlords loaded and unloaded units by landing, but for hot drops or risky pickups the tendrils were used for greater Overlord mobility. Contrary to popular belief, the insides of Overlords were fairly cool, dry and cavernous as opposed to the sort of conditions i.e. hot, slimy and cramped which would make a physically healthy male a mental eunuch after a single trip in one. The two soldiers used their QP Packs to boost up to be able to get clear shots on the Flood as more Zerg forces began to arrive and prevail over the green parasites.

Once the fighting ended John blinked, he could have sworn he'd seen a ghostly version of Liara going around a corner… He walked toward it as if entranced, though still on the lookout for hostiles.

"What do you see?" Thel asked in concern at the unusual behaviour, before shrugging and following.

John saw a ghostly version of Liara motioning toward a terminal with her usual innocent smile before fading out of existence, it was on a balcony he had not previously noted. He pushed the activation button on the console and a deep rumble ran through the Ark. Out of the fog rose a mostly-complete Halo ring. "Ah… so that WAS what Liara meant when she talked about a solution…"

"A replacement… For the ring you destroyed." Thel breathed.

"When did you know?" John asked, seeing Spark's icon on his HUD Omni display behind him.

"Just now, but…I had my hopes. What will you do?"

John rolled his eyes "Fire it."

"…Then we are agreed! A tactical pulse will completely eradicate the local infestation! I will personally oversee the final preparations." Spark was saying as he flew away. "Though it will take time to fabricate an activation index, I will see to the letter that…" He got too far away to be worth listening to.

"How will you light it?" Thel asked.

"He will be able to do it, no problems, by just ordering it be so, he has the clearance." Crystal finally spoke up. "John just needs to get to the Control Room or the Bridge of the Ark to do it."

"Hmm… there's a lot you guys aren't telling me, eh? Well, so long as this problem gets solved…" Thel shrugged "High Charity contains too many Flood, even your Zerg allies are not here in sufficient numbers to contain them forever."

"On that we are agreed." Kerrigan, who had been listening in, told them. "We are hatching as many warriors as we can but High charity simply had too much biomass on it… We'll be able to hold them for at least one more day though despite the absurdly long perimeter, we've got more than enough time."

They nabbed the captured Truth on their way out almost as an afterthought. He would be chucked in the Autumn's brig until John Shepard came back from his mission. All implants and such were removed by Coalition medical equipment just in case one was a bomb of some sort. Suspicious chemicals were also scanned for and removed from the few bones in which they were found, an obvious death weapon.

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><p>ZERG VS FLOOD, A BRIEF SUMMARY<p>

By Hannah Shepard, Division Commander, Cybran Nation.

Most would consider it odd that the Zerg are more effective against the Flood than typical Coalition weapons. The logic is not that complicated: Coalition weapons are capable of incredible bombardment-style crowd control, but against Infection Forms they co not guarantee one hundred percent cleansing unless we are talking about massed bombers, preferably UEF or Cybran, or a true carpet of shells. Zerg are much more precise against small targets, and are much more efficient in their work. Furthermore, Zerg can muster the sort of tide of carapaced backs to scour every nook and cranny for Flood. Coalition land units tend to do it by thoroughly raking over a region. While this is effective against everything, occasionally one or two Infection Forms may through random chance survive. With the way the Flood works, that is unacceptable. The Zerg are able to sense Flood to quite a distance, and will therefore be able to completely scour an area of Flood much more effectively.

Also, this should be obvious but to many it is not: Zerglings can fit into FAR smaller spaces than any Coalition unit can hope to pull off, the same can be said of anything the Zerg can field on the ground other than Ultralisks and some of the larger Queens. This factor is very important in terms of removing Infection Forms from an area cleanly and efficiently. Coalition Marines are incapable of fitting into the sort of crevices Zerglings can pull off, the best they can do is pump plasma through an area if it's equipped with structural fields or reclaim it to expose the Flood. Neither method is very efficient. The Zerg, on the other hand, can either scurry in or spray some acid down there, much faster and less hazardous. In conclusion, it should be obvious just WHY the Zerg are (somewhat) more effective than the Coalition against the Flood, though of course if you need to deal with truly overwhelming numbers, it is still better to be Coalition.

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><p>AN: Destroying installations such as those generators gets absurdly easy when you are the Coalition of Species.

You want to know why no world is fortified the crap out of? At least not in the Infinite War? Fear of revolts. That's why only a few Core Worlds had the ACUs ready in the Gate Complexes. Garrisons present too much of a risk since no one is really happy about how long the war has dragged and that foments revolt.

You now have two full lines of the Librarian's Prophecy, good luck figuring the first section out though.

There weren't that many of them last time, so…REVIEW!


	34. The Shattering

A/N: I am SOMEWHAT upset that so few people have reviewed on Pokémon: Rise of Legends so far. I mean, it's one of the cast's MORE IMPORTANT past lives, at least people should notice some things that have been referenced or used, right? If you do, say so in a review, or I'm going to start thinking I wrote things wrong.

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><p>Chapter 34: The Shattering<p>

_High Charity Wreckage, Ark, February 5, 3872_

The Flood had made obvious headway against the Zerg, at least, that's what the Arbiter and John's crews were seeing. The field below was littered with fragments of broken purple carapace and mountains of dead Flood biomass that were being absorbed by the Creep. The Zerg defence line had backed up a bit but was still holding firm against the outpouring of Flood forms, supplemented by Coalition Point Defence guns punching huge holes in the oncoming ranks and Coalition units performing crowd control from their high vantage points. After all, a tall tank will have a turret far up, ergo height advantage, though the "tanks" present were Fatboys and did not exactly require that with the constant hosing of shells they were spraying wildly downrange into the tide.

They entered High Charity via a gaping hole blown there by a Covenant Plasma Projector when the Elites were trying to destroy he city. "Commander, we'll round up our survivors, fall back to the ships." Rtas Vadum reported.

"Do it, we'll hold back the Flood with our units, Kerrigan?"

"Agreed, my Zerg will hold the line along with your deployed units." Kerrigan stated grimly, broadcasting to her warriors mentally: _Warriors of the Zerg Swarm! Though we have never tasted true death, nor shall we, know that you fall today, temporarily, so that you, so that we may go on!_ There was a cataclysmically loud series of mental and physical screeches, snarls and roars of agreement at Kerrigan's message, and the Zerg prepared their defences with renewed fervour. Of course, the fact that Zerg dying only meant their consciousnesses and energy rejoined the hive mind to be used to fill new vessels (the Asari religions would cream their panties at the knowledge of this) helped immensely in the warriors brushing off death as nothing. Of course, being reborn was a highly irritating experience that few liked, but it still allowed the Zerg to often disregard death, since nothing was more pleasurable to them than obeying their Queen, Kerrigan. The few who did enjoy being reborn were typically used to fill either Scourge or Zergling bodies, the latter of which were to evolve to Banelings.

The nine-sentient crew dropped into the interior of High Charity "Liara's in there somewhere…" Crystal whispered as if to herself as the ground crew advanced, weapons at the ready and shields fully fired up. Camouflage and stealth were not used, this close to the Gravemind, it would be pointless.

"LZ's clear, Zeratul, come on in." John called into his comm. before looking back to see the Void Seeker fly above the hole they entered through and Zeratul, dressed in Protoss Dark Templar armour with a few minor adjustments, drop down through the hole. The Prelate tossed two Warp Blade emitters to John for auxiliary weapons, and he nodded as he slotted them in his leg pockets. It was easier to retrieve than Quantum Storage items.

"Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness, a mother's sins passed to her daughters…" Gravemind growled ominously in the fetid air of High Charity.

A distant sound stretched across some indefinable distance to John Shepard's ears at that moment, a mix of screams of utter agony and hysterical laughter, both of which seemed to be from the same very familiar Asari voice that struck a chord inside him somewhere. Then after the laughter had settled and the crew gotten a bit further into High Charity (hacking, shooting, ramming, psychic-ing and burning the Flood out of the way), her voice entered his mind, drawing great shuddering gasps as if clinging to the last shreds of life "I tried to stay hidden, but there was no escape! He cornered me, wrapped me tight… and brought me close."

"Of course, you came for _her_… We exist together now. Two corpses, in one grave…" Gravemind laughed at that while John Shepard tore a Tank Form limb from limb using his armour's sheer strength (of course, he'd riddled it with holes first) before plunging the Tank Form's claw down through the body of a Combat Form, slicing it in half. Then he grabbed the guns he'd tossed into the air, which had fallen back down within reach, and swept them down, firing them and slashing with the plasma bayonets.

The next telepathic… communication, for lack of better terms, from Liara sounded hysterical and broken as she wailed between sobs "A collection of lies; that's all I am! A stolen consciousness and personality from those long gone!" John paled under his helmet at that. _No, you are far more unique than I am, if anyone is a copy then I am, I've almost always been human or very close, you've been all over the place in terms of species…_

"And yet, perhaps a part of her…remains?" Gravemind's taunting transmission dissolved into maniacal laughter that faded into Liara's voice laughing. It only spurred John Shepard to fight harder, wading into the sea of Flood and tearing them apart like a demonic force of hell (but for the self-loathing at leaving his mate in this sort of place, which was thoroughly atypical of creatures from hell). Weapons, claws and limbs assailed him, but nothing fazed him as he fought on, grabbing Flood corpses to hold before him as meat shields when his personal shields dropped too low for his liking, mechanically hacking through however many hundreds of the monstrosities stood in his path toward the last known location Liara and Gravemind's thoughts had broadcast from. _There is always hope… but if she's gone… don't think about it John, kill a path to her, get her back, save her…_ His mind snapped at himself.

"I had not thought humans were capable of fighting so fanatically. The last time I saw anything like it was Jim when he was fighting for you." Zeratul commented to Sarah Kerrigan over a private channel.

"Their bond is closer than me and Jimmy ever will be, it is only natural that when one is in danger the other becomes the symbol of doom to their enemies." Sarah replied "Expect Zerg reinforcements dropping in soon, tell your Templar about it. They probably won't be too comfortable fighting alongside Hydralisks."

"Aye, Kerrigan, will do." Zeratul stated before looking around at his brethren, finding himself very happy he'd insisted on installing the armour modifications. The enhanced personal shields were allowing the two Dark Templar with him to hold the line as well as Zealots could, since stealth was useless in this hive. "Brethren, expect Zerg support soon! Do not falter in your step and we shall all make it out of here in one piece."

Most predictably thanks to Murphy's Law, not a minute after Zeratul said that, one of the Dark Templar stumbled from a Carrier Form's explosion. Despite the laser pistols incorporated in the new armour mods, they weren't quite accustomed to them yet, except Zeratul, who'd conducted plenty of infantry ranged weapons operations in the past with the Raiders. That provided enough time for a Ranged Form to line up a shot and fire it… and enough time for the Dark Templar in question to get swept aside by a shove from a charging Hydralisk. The spines of the Ranged Form glanced off the greatly evolved Slothien's carapaced head frill thingy and leaving only a few scratch marks before the Hydralisk roared and fired a volley of its deadly needle spines, tearing the Ranged Form to tatters and killing it even while the arm scythes of the Hydralisk tore two Combat Forms in half.

The Dark Templar had jumped up, eyes glowing fiercely in anger at being tackled, then realized what had happened and started helping the Hydralisk fight the Flood. As this particular wave ended, the Hydralisk in question gave a sort of salute with its right scythe arm and the Dark Templar nodded back, then saluted back in understanding of being occasionally batted out of the way whenever his shields were low.

John Shepard noticed none of this as he filleted, shredded, ripped, shot, blasted, bludgeoned, and burnt Flood out of his way with mechanical efficiency, any Flood form to enter a five metre radius of him died within two seconds as he forged a path against the current of the river. Liara's voice echoed in his head again "I'm just my past life's shadow… don't look at me, don't listen! I'm not who I used to be…" John's eyes widened almost imperceptibly under his helmet. _No, don't think that, Liara, don't you ever think that… you're so much more than your pasts' shadow! Each one of your versions is different… finite, precious. Don't give up, not that I'm so close… so close to finding you… to bringing you back from this wretched place that I put you in…_ He knew he would never forgive himself for this, and he could only hope that she could with time forgive him… neither man nor the machine part of him expected forgiveness, and it mattered to neither part of him. What mattered was getting her back.

They emerged into a large room, leaving behind thousands of decomposing Flood corpses and a few wounded Zerg which were taking some time to regenerate. The process was accelerated by taking some time off and more importantly having lunch "Time has taught me _patience_! But basking in new freedom, I will know _all that I possess_!" Gravemind boomed angrily, coupled with a yelp of pain torn form the throat of a female… a familiar female.

John Shepard ripped the top half off a Ranged Form with a single swing of his LBR even while hitting three Combat Forms each with two bolts in the one second he swung the gun, blowing them all apart. His Gauss LMG was effectively firing continuously, using high explosive ammunition for maximum damage against the Flood. Flood spines and Hydralisk spines traded fire all around him yet none appeared to hit him from either side as he weaved through the tide of fire, always ploughing ahead and shredding more and more Flood without speaking a word as he homed in on the rapidly weakening signal. "I have walked the edge of the abyss. I have seen my past, your future, and I have learned!" Liara screeched hysterically in John's head, drawing a violent shiver from the hardened soldier. He hurled another volley of grenades downrange before smashing through the Combat Form in front of him like it was rice paper.

"_Submit_! _End her torment and my own_!" Gravemind bellowed angrily as Liara continued to scream in the background. John's teeth gnashed together _I will only end your torment Gravemind, you will know the pain you've caused her a million times over, you will know death, _I_ will ensure it if no one else can!_ "You _will_ show me what she hides…or I shall feast upon your _bones_!"

The bones of Tank, Ranged, Stalker, Combat and Carrier Forms became dust under high velocity explosives, lasers, grenades, and several hundred kilograms of armoured Cybran as they waded on, ad HE waded on, his mind only focused on one thing: Save Liara. Finally, they reached an end of a long hallway, a terminus of sorts. At the far end, a weakly glowing version of Liara was being held up by her neck by Gravemind's tentacles, behind a barrier of some sort. "Don't come any closer John, you might be too late… kill this thing, this Gravemind, that's what matters, that's all that matters." She took several laboured breaths before groaning in agony at a renewed psychic assault.

"Liara!" John exclaimed, the first time he had spoken in quite a while, before grabbing his INL, putting it to his shoulder, and going down to one knee to stabilize it. Three missiles cracked the projector node in the ceiling and four more dropped the shield entirely. "Gravemind… release her." The fighting behind him was beginning to die down with the Zerg, Protoss, Coalition and Covenant Separatists prevailing.

"You think me a fool?" Gravemind questioned, laughing with the mouth it had in the room "A hundred thousand years ago you two foiled my plans… I know who she was, who you were, and now you are within my grasp… You shall never escape again. A million deaths could not sate my vengeance, but I have something better in mind."

Liara's eyes suddenly bulged and she let out a gurgle. Her image flared as one of Gravemind's tentacles stabbed into her back, she did her best to struggle with her arms and legs bound together by the thing's tentacles. Her eyes left John's as she looked down in time to see her blue avatar slowly turning sickly green, radiating away from the site of the intruding tentacle that was sticking out of the front of her chest. Something was crawling… sliding around beneath her skin. "Oh Goddess… make it stop! Do me a favour… help me… maybe… maybe I need to help myself…?" She tried to move as the thing began to corrupt her avatar, her spirit, small tentacles beginning to burst from the surface of her body and wriggle around as the border zone between green and blue flared fiercely with two powerful opponents clashing. The green was visibly winning over the fatigued blue glow and was pushing forward, expanding…

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><p>AN: Yep, the Traumatized Marine lines…

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><p>"The best way to do this is to go in along the route of the infestation, stab straight down the line of the tentacle, believe me, it's the best way to ensure she does not completely become corrupted. It will hurt, but it will be better than the alternative…" Zeratul stated, shaking his head sadly before springing up for a flying leap to run the avatar through and burn out the tentacle involved before it could be corrupted further. His green blade was met on its way down by a blood-red plasma bayonet from beneath John Shepard's Laser Battle Rifle and he was stared down by the glaring red helmet optics of the Cybran.<p>

"Templar, cut through the tentacles, especially the infesting one, Liara will be able to fight off the infection then, don't you DARE touch her with your Warp Blades." John Shepard snarled as the Cybran and Protoss were locked together, hovering in the air with their QP Packs. Gravemind was too busy laughing at their situation to hear him.

Zeratul backed off and gave his templar nods before standing back, aware that John Shepard was still glaring warily at him and his Nerazim brethren. He did a little more probing and his eyes widened imperceptibly as he recognized the true extent of the link between the man standing behind him and the soul trapped within the avatar, he had been a fool to even consider what he'd been considering. The other two Templar did as they were told, cutting through the tentacle responsible for the infestation as well as several others, making Gravemind roar angrily. Before they could cut through the ones tied around the avatar's feet, however, they were driven back by countless more tentacles lashing toward them. Liara's green tinged area rapidly disappeared, purged by sheer will.

"Even if I may not get all of you, at least one shall become food…" Gravemind's mouth opened and a tentacle wrapped around Liara's avatar's neck. She had been so exhausted by the constant fighting that even with her arms free she could not blast the tentacles away from her. Countless Flood Forms charged from around the Gravemind's maw as Liara was drawn toward it, well, her soul's embodiment was. Tentacles assisted the Flood Forms as they swarmed the soldiers that were fighting their way through the tide, standing bravely against it and laying down an endless torrent of fire downrange as they were charged.

"This… Ends… HERE!" John Shepard bellowed as one Sniper Overcharge shot tore through over thirty Flood Forms before finally expending all its destructive energy. They went down almost at the same time with the vast holes blown in their bodies rendering them incapable of further fighting. He fired continuously, throwing grenades every second or so by tossing his weapons up, flinging two grenades out underhanded, and catching his guns on their way down before continuing to shoot.

Gravemind merely laughed and boomed "So it does…" as he chomped down on the once again blue avatar that was trying to claw her way out of his hold. Liara screamed as she felt a part of herself disintegrate into the creature's maw, and she kept screaming as its mouth opened again, revealing a softly glowing blue paste lining the inside before it fed her further, feet-first, in and chomped down again, rumbling all the while with megalomaniacal laughter. She could feel herself attacked by its digestive system, though how it could digest souls she had not a clue.

John Shepard kept his eyes fixed on the horrid sight of his love's soul literally being eaten alive by the monster at the far end of the long chamber they were in as he almost casually sliced his way through the horde in mad, reckless motions that reduced any and all Flood in his path to soup. Liara T'Soni kept her eyes on his as she tried to slow down the process by which she was being dragged into the Gravemind's maw, but at the exact moment when he had finished closing the distance, the Gravemind's maw slammed shut one last time and her hands, the only parts left outside, went limp as Liara T'Soni, as a gestalt consciousness, finally collapsed in on herself, falling to pieces…

An inhuman screech of pain tore itself from John Shepard's throat the moment he saw her hands, still hanging out of the Gravemind's mouth go limp, when he was already starting to engage his QP Pack. He tore the Warp Blade emitters from his leg pockets and snapped the two green, Void-fed energy blades on as he boosted into the air, watching Gravemind suck up what little remained of Liara's soul like it was slurping spaghetti. He roared on his way down, both blades flaring as his armour interfaced with them and fed them even more energy, lengthening as he brought them down through the Gravemind's maw, weaving and hacking with speeds beyond even most Dark Templar as he dropped across it.

A sudden silence rang in the room, echoing in the aftermath, as John Shepard hit the ground and the mouth Gravemind had formed in the room disintegrated into chunks of sliced and shredded flesh and gooey fluids. The Flood Forms in the room screamed and entered a sort of dormant state, becoming sitting ducks for the remaining Zerg, Protoss and Covenant warriors. Only Zerg had fallen, and even then there were no fatalities, as they had been saved by medi-gel from James, Tali and Mirala. Zeratul commented on the dormancy of the Flood "This is almost like when we killed the first Overmind, the Zerg in the immediate area went dormant form the sheer shock of losing their hive mind. Then most of them went feral… The Gravemind's not dead, but attacking it with weapons based off Void energies hurt it, hurt it bad."

A crystalline tinkling was heard as John Shepard looked up, his breath laboured and his throat raw from the sheer shout he had given. "What are those?" He asked no one in particular as crystalline fragments, pulsing a gentle, familiar blue, fell from the Gravemind's mouth's remains, tinkling as they hit and bounced off the deck before coming to rest like pieces of broken glass.

Crystal explained from John's pocket in a near-whisper "Soul fragments, memories, feelings, a personality… the brighter they glow, the more important the aspect they contain would have been to the deceased… They are so fragmented because that was the way she was when she was transformed. I'm basically a copy of my version of Liara's soul, and the Commander T'Soni that's a part of me is a copy of hers, I think we might still stand a chance of bringing her back. Grab all the fragments and then we'll leave this accursed place."

"We have dozens of Strategic Missiles ready to clear this thing off the map of the Ark once and for all, just get out of there and we'll blast it." Hannah confirmed over the comm., having listened in "Get Liara out… whatever remains of her." She added softly.

John nodded mutely at his mother's transmission box before beginning to collect the fragments and stow them away, he noticed one, an equilateral triangle, glowed brighter blue than all the others. It was the last piece, and the farthest… suddenly the chamber rumbled ominously and a tentacle erupted out of the ground, making John Shepard, who had just turned around, stumble back several steps.

_Crunch…_

He looked down at his foot in horror to see the shattered fragment crumble into dust just before pain lanced through his head, bringing him to his knees as his skull burned with the feeling. He had failed… even given a second chance to save her, he had failed, become the instrument of her destruction… Gravemind would die!

John Shepard whipped out the dual Warp Blades again, knowing he had collected all the soul fragments save the one he himself had broken, and roared before hacking through the tentacle, Gravemind's laughter echoing around him as more Flood came in from the back of the room. Two shimmering blades of green forged the entire crew's path as swaths of Flood were cut down with every running step, every swing of John Shepard. The enraged lawn mower of Flood breezed through the foul beasts by the hundreds, thousands, as he sliced his way through them. He grabbed his guns when the number of ranged Forms began to be too much for his shields to sustain but still continued slashing, shooting, and screaming non-stop as he fought his way out through the hive. The many soldiers and Zerg warriors following behind him did so mutely, many with their jaws hanging open in amazement (obviously excluding the Protoss), occasionally shooting or hacking a straggler or not-quite-dead Flood form he had missed. The Zerg in particular were slicing apart every relatively whole corpse to make sure, though they were still mostly focused on the speed and efficiency with which the Flood fell before John Shepard. The Hydralisks, Lurkers and Roaches even made mental notes not to get on John Shepard's bad side as they scurried or slithered after him.

John Shepard cared about none of this as he shredded everything before him; vision blurred from tears and every steady beat of his heart a jagged sort of pain, as if the shards Liara had become were digging into his chest, stabbing away at him. He hadn't been fast enough to save her; he hadn't even been good enough to prevent himself from stepping on and destroying a piece of her soul even after it had been torn out of her. Flood spines pinged off his armour structural fields, doing minimal damage as his shields regenerated regardless of the damage his armour was taking. Soon enough the protective bubbles sprang back up and began absorbing damage again. They were slowly eroding, but he didn't care, nothing mattered, nothing except getting what was left of his love's broken spirit back to her body and ensuring that she would remain safe, no matter what.

They had to fire Halo, HE had to fire Halo, to destroy the Flood for good. The Zerg would send units here later to ensure it, but for now what mattered was firing Halo so that they could all make it out of this mess. He owed Liara that, even if he couldn't save her soul, he could at least ensure the eternal end of the one who broke it, broke her…

They made their way back to the breach in the hull and the crew boosted up to the _Void Seeker_, hovering above the site, before it pulled away and an Overlord's tentacles reached in and nabbed the Zerg units before taking them all away from the remains of High Charity. John Shepard reached the bridge of the Void Seeker only to find a holographic Big Red Button already set up for him to slam his fist down on, snarling viciously. Less than three minutes later, High Charity's final resting place was utterly enveloped in the white light of countless Strategic Missile detonations all over the wreck. Liberator-class Strategic Missile Launchers impacted first with their EMP Warheads, delivering an extra EMP in addition to the usual oomph of a normal Strategic Missile, frying systems and causing core overloads all over the huge station. Stonager and Apocalypse-class launchers struck next, followed by the finishing blow, many, MANY Yolona Oss missiles striking the site and finishing the conversion of the whole area into a lake of molten glass and metal percolating down into the structure of the Ark. One by one, the surrounding guns and Zerg warriors fell silent as the Flood stopped coming. Then there was the first screech of joy before many more screeches rang out.

In the utter chaos that had been before High Charity was utterly erased, the Zerg had missed the tens of thousands of Flood Dispersal Pods fired from the crashed station. Kerrigan soon remedied that as she saw them on the Radar readout of the _Pillar of Autumn_, but it was too late, the pods were too close… They touched down all over the new Halo, most near the control center. In that moment quite a number of Zerg boarded Overlords and crossed the gap escorted by fleets of air units, ready to do battle. Their age-old enemy would fall today, that was the thought that the entire Zerg Swarm agreed on, from the lowliest Broodling to the mightiest Leviathan.

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><p>AN: So, will I actually silence Liara and leave John Shepard a shattered wreck or shall they compose anew? That's a damned rhetorical question… Don't even have to ask, don't even bother answering.

REVIEW!


	35. This Is the Way the World Ends

A/N: Someone pointed out that Kinetic Barriers do not block light in a PM, I am quite sure that I use the term "Barrier" and NOT "Kinetic Barrier". Note that "Barrier" is here simply another term for "Shield", after all, things are enough of a pushover as is, no need to make life even easier (though a Monkeylord would not even notice a difference except in the size of the free-floating particles it leaves behind).

Others pointed out something else: **Experimentals are less dense than water** (something I wondered about in the past…). All I can say is: A whole lot of ballast tanks fill up when they submerge. Yes, I have recently been enlightened that SupCom armour is quite thin, however I think I said this before: ARMOUR IS ONLY THERE AS A PROJECTION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR STRUCTURAL FIELDS! This has some implications that will get explored more in the future, but the armour isn't as thin as you'd think, since it generally represents the last dozen to few hundred or so HP points in a unit's HP bar. Why do you think ship loss ratios are so horrendous in the Covenant War (something on the order of 100,000 vessels lost for 40,000 Covenant ships in direct combat) and crews so small (typically fewer Coalition crewmembers are lost in a battle than ships)? Ships are considered expendable… though as you can tell by the build times getting so long they are beginning to apply heavy armour on the Destroyer and Cruiser type vessels, learning lessons from the Covenant War. Crews are not so expendable (only because they don't need to be).

As for social issues between the factions, they mostly keep to themselves but cooperate militarily and are slowly beginning to open up to one another (I did say Thalia had to drag Jaran kicking and screaming to the Cybran Nation so they could save his sorry ass, says something about how much the factions mix aka not that much). Does that sound about right?

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><p>Chapter 35: This Is the Way the World Ends<p>

_Incomplete Halo, Ark, February 5, 3872_

"We are all aboard, even most of the Zerg, will you not come with us, brother?" Rtas Vadum asked Thel Vadam over the comm. as the Arbiter and John flew toward the Incomplete Halo with their crews aboard the Void Seeker, Zeratul's vessel, which had once been Crystal's private ship, apparently.

The Arbiter shook his head "No, this is our fight, and I will see it finished."

"Son, I'm going to bring the Autumn as close to the Control Room as I possibly can." Hannah stated.

"Safer is better than closer, mom."

"I've got Scorchers, Wasps, Geminis and Revenants combing the hull and surrounding space continuously as well as Zerg inside the shield bubble, there won't be a problem." Wasps had Ginsu Pulse Beams that were the only real beam weapons in the ASF group's arsenal. Each ASF had its high points, the Wasp had instant strike capacity, the Gemini missiles and active stealth, the Corona Flak-type weapons, and the Iazyne a balance of a small amount of splash like the Corona and health like the Wasp.

"The closest place the Void Seeker can drop you is near this terminal of some sort here." Zeratul informed the crew, who nodded collectively, stoically, John Shepard strapping the Warp Blades to his arms and tightening the straps about his gauntlets before looking up.

"Do it." He stated in a whisper.

"Halo, it's so new… unfinished. I'm not exactly sure what will happen when we fire it…" Tali commented as they approached the drop zone.

"We'll head for the Portal. And we'll all go home." James told his lover, acutely aware of his twin's pain and predicament.

"We're here, everybody out!" Zeratul called as they reached the drop zone.

"I have your nav-points all plotted out boys, from here all the way to extraction, just follow them and you'll be fine." Hannah called them.

"What's this terminal here?" John wondered, walking up to it and reading from it, as it had activated when he neared it. "D:" He frowned "Who the hell is D? Crystal, you have an idea?"

"Only too well…" Crystal muttered. "Read on."

"Proud? When I have failed you utterly, how can I feel anything but sorrow? Bias has come undone. He crossed the line this morning—brought the abomination with him—and destroyed your waiting rescue party. It's over. We're activating the Halo Array, our shameful last resort."

"Ah, so THAT was why when I arrived at the rendezvous with my Keyship and two Cruisers we met a hostile fleet instead of a friendly escort party…" Crystal said to herself.

John frowned, looking at her for a moment before shaking off the feeling that she was withholding critical information "I can picture you in your garden, surveying all you have created—surveying all you have preserved. And I curse the circumstance that keeps my finger on the trigger. That's the end of this message."

"I REALLY should have simply pulled a coup, we could have done it, but the fucking Senate… 'too little, too late' might as well have been their motto." Crystal growled viciously.

"D: Of all the fates to befall us, this is the cruellest of all. My inaction and hesitation and foolishness kept me here, on the wrong side of the line. And 300 years of our society's failure and miscalculation makes me your executioner."

Crystal chuckled at that "Well he failed that job."

"D: Mendicant Bias is trying to prevent us from firing the Array. He speeds back to the Ark, but he won't succeed. Offensive Bias will stop him, and I will burn this stinking menace in your name. And then…? I will begin our Great Journey without you, carrying this bitter record. Those who came after will know what we bought with this Array, what you bought, and the price you paid." John read, the words sounded familiar to him, too familiar somehow…

Crystal snorted grimly "Heh, the only price he and I paid was separation, that was it."

"Okay then… wait, there's a new message." John stated.

A slightly distorted voice began to play form the terminal "You don't know the contortions I had to go through to follow you here, Reclaimer. I know what you're here for. What position do I take? Will I follow one betrayal with another?"

"Mendicant Bias!" Crystal hissed "Perhaps he wasn't lying on High Charity after all…"

"Whatever you say, I wouldn't mind wringing his AI neck for not keeping the Keyship firmly anchored on High Charity." John growled.

"You're going to say I'm making a habit of turning on my masters. But the one that destroyed me long ago, in the upper atmosphere of a world far distant from here, was an implement far cruder than I. My weakness was capacity—unintentional though it was!—to choose the Flood. A mistake my makers would not soon forgive. But I want something far different from you, Reclaimer: Atonement." Mendicant stated. "And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable—keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example."

"I hear you, Mendicant, through metal and stone and time… I hear you…" Crystal whispered as if to herself. "How many of these have you found?" She asked abruptly.

John shrugged "Only this one."

"There are many more that I can show you, and I myself am a virtual library of knowledge on our kind's once-great civilization… well, we're great again now, but that's beside the point. Now we need to get back on track, get to the Control Room." The crew ran off toward the Control Room only to run into a rather solid mass of Flood.

Gravemind cackled through his underlings "DID YOU THINK ME... _DEFEATED?_"

Not that Flood could be very solid, since the nine-sentient crew sliced into them like they were nothing. The two Grunts were performing all sorts of acrobatics as they destroyed Tank Forms with their grenades, Coalition-issue SMGs and modified plasma pistols. The Overcharge was really damned useful when you could fire it every couple seconds without worrying about ammo. The three Elites present hacked apart masses of Flood Forms with their plasma swords, modified to have unlimited charges as opposed to about a hundred hacks or so. They were also firing various assault weapons into the crowd. The four assorted Reclaimers were tearing away at the horde, John Shepard leading with his Warp Blades and dual-wielding assault-type weapons as he ploughed through the Flood ranks like a Fatboy through your average sheet of rice paper.

"There should be _ramps_ that lead to the top, _check the other side!_" Crystal called as they neared the tower. The crew sighed and all activated QP Packs, ignoring the spines pinging off their shields as they soared above the Flood ranks, dropping grenades as soon as they could be fabricated, opening big holes in the Flood force. Air support was en route but would take a moment to get there. "Flood are crawling all over that tower; watch yourselves." Crystal warned.

"Spark? You in there? Open the damn door!" James Shepard shouted as a Restorer touched down on the top of the tower at the same tie the crew did. The Quad Light Laser immediately swivelled to take care of the flood surge from the ramp up.

Guilty Spark emerged from the Restorer in question, and it took off, circling the tower and blasting off any Flood it could detect."Of course, Reclaimers. Just as soon as you dispose of all proximate Flood threats. I'm afraid containment protocols do not allow me to—"

"We hear you, Scorchers en route, ETA thirty seconds." Hannah announced. The icons lighting up in the distance on John's HUD announced their approach from the nearest side of the Ark.

"I have beaten fleets of _thousands!_ Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!" Gravemind howled just before the T1 Attack Bombers began dropping fusillades of incendiary munitions that burnt hard enough to damage structural fields. The field around the Control Room immediately became the ultimate barbecue as the entire plain was set utterly alight with blue-hot fire.

"Open up! Coast is clear." John prompted Guilty Spark in his now still rather hoarse voice.

"The Scorchers will guard the outside of the Control Room, get in there and fire Halo!" Hannah ordered firmly.

As Guilty Spark opened the door, Gravemind boomed psionically "Do I take life or give it? Who is victim, and who is foe?"

"It's trying to rebuild itself on this ring!" Hannah noted "And I can't strategic missile it! Can't even risk Salvation fire, Kerrigan, do you have some Ultralisks nearby? Shuttling Coalition ground units over isn't very efficient right now, we're a bit far away."

Kerrigan nodded "Affirmative, they are right outside the Gravemind cocoon area, and are en route now with a strike force of Roaches, Hydralisks, Lurkers and Overseers escorting them, but we need to have the Nerazim slay the foul beast, only their energies can ensure its death is permanent."

Zeratul nodded "My brethren and I will go once the Zerg have cleared the path for us, though I must admit this is uncomfortably close to the time you used us to eliminate the Second Overmind, Kerrigan."

Kerrigan facepalmed and sighed "Oh please, the Flood aren't even Zerg, they are the common enemy, besides, would you not agree that you would not have had four years to rebuild after the Brood War if the Second Overmind was in charge? Even when I engaged you after the Brood War, it was half-hearted at best, your casualties were far below what they should have been, not counting the Tal'darim."

"You make a good point, Kerrigan." One of the other Dark Templar stated after a moment of thought and running battle ratios and loss ratios in his head, the third nodding.

Zeratul shrugged at the consensus "Very well, we shall follow the path of your warriors to the Gravemind, Adun Toridas!"

"Well, you boys can wait until they kill the critter to fire the ring, apparently…" Hannah shrugged as if to make a point.

Guilty Spark floated down from above as the crew lounged around the Control Room "Oh, hello! Wonderful news, the Installation is almost complete!"

Tali snorted "Terrific."

"Yes…isn't it?" There was a deafening silence as reports came in of the Ultralisk push driving the Flood back rapidly with the smaller forms mopping up whatever remained. The Dark Templar were simply sweeping in after the biological tanks and their escorts. "I have begun my simulations. No promises, but initial results indicate that this facility should be ready to fire…in just a few more days!"

"We don't have a few more days!" John snapped.

"Bu-b-but a premature firing will _destroy_ the Ark!" Guilty Spark appeared severely traumatized by the thought before adding quietly "…will destroy this Installation."

As soon as the report came in of confirmed slaying of the Gravemind with Nerazim energies so that it could not re-spawn, at least, not with the memories and experience the consciousness had in previous re-spawns, John leapt into action. "Deal with it, Monitor, I command you to activate the Installation."

"What? Unacceptable! You cannot command me to do this without an Index, though it is the right thing to do, and with the Halo in such an unfinished state!" Guilty Spark yelled, his eye turning red like an Oculus Drone and zapping John with a brief pulse of a reed laser just to check if the Reclaimer was still sane or not. Unfortunately this resulted in him being the target of a lather large number of lethal implements of death. "Protocol dictates action! I see now that helping you was _wrong!_ You are the children of my makers, inheritors of all they left behind, you _are_ Forerunner! But this ring… is mine!" He stated stubbornly, eye still red.

"No it is NOT, Spark!" Crystal bellowed, causing everyone to freeze at the fire in her authoritative voice?

"…but…but… you're… dead?" Guilty Spark spluttered.

Crystal snorted "I am a Soul Crystal now, and yes I did perfect the technique, now, Spark, are you REALLY going to disobey your Librarian? Or the… I lost count of the number…re-coming of your Didact?"

Guilty Spark hit the floor with a thud, the closest thing John could think of was a petulant child falling on his or her butt in shock. "No, no, my makers would never ally with the Zerg after their treachery… that means… you are Zerg impostors!

Crystal's projection sighed "Yeah… he's gone rampant."

"Almost cannot believe…" Guilty Spark muttered as his eye turned red again "What's she gonna make me do this time? Wear a Santa hat and sing Christmas carols AGAIN? I will not be a plaything of the Zerg!"

"You guys had Christmas?" James asked as they circled the obviously mad construct.

"Yeah, I'm not going to explain why yet, but we did have it." Crystal replied.

John snorted "Right, now… we need to get this Ring to fire, stand aside or be destroyed, Spark!"

"Think of your forefathers! You do not deserve this ring!" Spark snarled before opening fire with a beam that blasted Two (the Unggoy) off his feet and onto his back but only popped his over-shield and singed his personal shield.

Immediately Spark was lit up by many munitions scorching or flaying away at his plating "PIN HIM DOWN!" John shouted the rules of engagement as he lunged for the Monitor, who swerved out of his reach. "Mirala nail him!" He shouted, realizing that Crystal would probably break too much of Spark in one use of her powers. The Asari in question did so, seizing Spark in a stasis field long enough for James and Tali's combined hacking routines and software repair systems to break into him, though John's armour acquired a scorch mark while he physically held the orb down.

"I am the master of… what am I saying?" Spark suddenly went blue again, locking up as energy discharges ran over his surface.

"That you were going to fire Halo for us?" John asked menacingly, shoving his Sniper Mode LBR into Spark's eye with the extra Overcharge coolant capsules sticking out the side like a magazine. "The Forerunners were once allies with the Zerg, the Reapers indoctrinated the Overmind and used some Zerg genetic material to create the Flood. Now the Zerg are free, and we the descendants of the Forerunners fight alongside them once more, understand, Spark? Now, Halo, fire it!"

"I… I comply." Spark finally gave up the fight, as he was too damaged to continue and his mind had been drawn back enough from rampancy to understand the fact. The firing sequence started and the Monitor started mumbling again. The crew charged back to the roof and boosted into the airlock of the awaiting Restorer, which cleaned them of anything they may have picked up. The walls began to explode as they left the Control Room behind, soaring toward the rising Heavy Destroyer's hangar bays. The ground beneath them began to quake and rumble… "The charging sequence… it's too much for the ring to take! I would like to say that 'I told you so', Librarian." Guilty Spark cheeked.

"I knew full well Halo would rip itself apart while firing." Crystal growled. "How charged is it, Spark?"

The Monitor stilled for a moment before answering "Forty percent and climbing."

Crystal sighed "Not good enough, structural integrity's too low, Spark, I'm authorizing the use of the experimental energy transmission/reception devices. Hannah, please pour all energy from your power plants into the Halo, or it won't charge fast enough. The Quantum Energy Transmission Device I invented was prototype technology and never fully finished, and so was the quantum energy plants of the Keyships of my personal fleet, but it's the best bet we have. The receiver probably won't work with more than ten percent efficiency but it's worth a shot regardless."

"Got it, feeding power from all the generators we have groundside on the Ark, charge should be climbing much faster now." Hannah looked up after inputting the commands with her mind and body.

"Yep, charge is at seventy and climbing." Crystal stated as they docked in the _Autumn_ and the huge bay doors, each layer of which was many meters thick, slammed shut behind them. "Eighty."

"EDI, floor it!" Hannah roared. The rest of the Allied Fleet had already jumped away, they were the last ones left in the vicinity of the Ark, and almost all Coalition technologies on the Ark had been self-destructed already. No one was left behind save those Zerg that had perished in battle and the Flood. Even then, their consciousnesses had rejoined the Zerg hive mind and would be reborn again with time and the passing of battles.

They rushed forward into the Portal homeward just as Halo fired, shaking itself apart in the process, and dealing an immense amount of damage to the Ark. The Portal tried to close with the Autumn halfway in, but the Shield bubble held out long enough for the warship to zip in without even bursting said bubble, forcing the Portal to stay open by sheer mass as it headed in. The immensely thick plating of the _Autumn_ (why do you think it takes so long for even a Paragon resource generator to make the mass and energy needed to construct a Heavy Destroyer?) and its structural fields by association was pockmarked by impacts from Plasma Projectors and scorched by Torpedo hits, but it held firm as the Heavy Destroyer surged toward Earth, homeward bound.

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><p>Still in the Restorer, the Librarian glared Spark down "He doesn't have any important databases, so we no longer have a use for you, Spark, your voice is seriously annoying, and the risk of you going rampant again is too great. John, end him." She stated coldly.<p>

John Shepard growled before pinning the Monitor to a wall with his LBR's barrel "Gladly." He fired four Overcharge bolts in a row before activating the Plasma bayonet and pulling back enough that the charred husk was cut in half as it slid down the unblemished wall. "That'll teach you to threaten me and my Liara again!" He spat on the smoking remains before turning away from them "Engage auto-clean systems in this sector once the wreck's cooled." He stated before disembarking.

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><p><em>Med Bay, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 5, 3872<em>

"How is she, Chakwas?" John Shepard hissed as he burst into the med bay, having gone through decontamination way back when he'd boarded the Restorer and thus being permitted to rush straight into the med bay.

The silver-haired Aeon woman shook her head "No change, still brain-dead, if we take her off life support, that'll be all she wrote, do you have anything that could help?"

"I…" John removed his gauntlets before carefully removing the shards he'd retrieved from his pockets and placing them in a tray Chakwas had whipped out for him. "These are fragments of her soul manifest, I brought them back… but I have no real clue what to do with them."

Chakwas blinked "I'm not trained to deal with spiritual things, but maybe you could put the fragments together somehow? That would be the first thing I'd do."

"Andrea Chakwas!" Crystal greeted cheerfully from John's pocket "Long time no see, why last time you… uh, better not mention it, you'll be annoyed. Anyhow, you're right, the first step is to reassemble it. The second step is simply to transfer it back into her body, which should be quite simple once we get there. The first step is the hard one, he has to truly know her in every aspect and be intimately connected with her in body and spirit. Fortunately, we have John for that. The problem is that fragment you stepped on, did you end up destroying too much of her for the rest to hold together? All I can tell you is to focus on trying to assemble the pieces together, looking at the geometric shapes and analyzing them. You can't do it by a machine or anything, only you yourself can put it together, though you are allowed to use your programs. Piece of advice though, they won't help."

John took his helmet off before running a hand through his hair. Chakwas frowned at the equilateral triangle imprint she saw a flash of on his forehead before seeing the shushing motions Crystal was doing and her mouthing "He will figure everything out eventually. This is his own quest for redemption, only he can do it."

"I will get to work immediately… what about Truth?" He asked.

"We've removed all hazardous materials from his body and he's still in the brig. A piece of advice, deal with him after Liara's awake again, she will want to see you torturing the scum to death."

Thel Vadam, who'd been talking with Lodam, the communications officer, looked up suddenly at that, grinning widely "Torturing Truth to death… now why didn't we think of that? When the time comes, just give us a call and we will do whatever you want us to while you torture Truth, if you want us to tear his toenails out and then stand on his feet while you use a hand sander on his face, we will gladly do so. We may not enjoy torture unlike the filthy Brutes, but we understand when it is necessary…" Both Sangheili's faces grew darker and they cracked their knuckles "and deserved."

"Also, just a message from me." Crystal's image abruptly changed to accommodate two people at once with the blue-haired orange-eyed woman that had just joined the party. Her hair seemed to be mostly kept back by her odd, pointed ears, not the two pairs of short spike-like fringes below the ears in question, as Commander T'Soni spoke. "After this nasty experience, I've subliminally messaged into her body's currently dormant brain one of my stronger… and first learnt moves, Dream Eater. It is effectively a soul-draining move, though its effects tend to be temporary unless wielded by one with EXTREME power. I haven't met many with that sort of power, but I was good enough to pull it off by the time I became a legend and Liara should be too. In addition to its consumption of enemy energies it also replenishes one's own, so if it comes down to it, have her replenish her own energy by draining Truth's, the bastard doesn't deserve any better than that."

"I doubt Liara would want to butcher someone else's soul for food after hers was just barely restored to her." John stated, frowning.

Commander T'Soni sighed "I wouldn't want to—Heh, funny considering who we're talking about that I say I wouldn't want to—either, but punishing evil is not butchering, it's doing the galaxy a favour… and restoring her own energy levels in the process is just a bonus. Truth needs to die painfully, and this is the best way to do it. Besides, it's either that or deal with a hungry Ardat-Yakshi, that requires a lot of performance… and I'm sure you'll be quite tired by the end of it. If you weren't Cybran, and I personally ensured you would be, you'd be dead by the time she's finished feeding."

"I think eight hundred years without your John made you a bit detached from reality, constantly contemplating the next battles and prying into the future to see the path that would lead this lifetime's us and him to victory." Librarian Liara stated, arms crossed and frowning at her later self's spirit copy.

Commander T'Soni shrugged "Maybe…" She frowned, then looked around the med-bay, away from her "self", asking "where'd he go?"

Crystal snorted at that "Probably to put her, well, later us… that sounds weird… back together in a more private area of the med bay."

The spirit imprint of the Commander winced "…I never got to tell him that I also unlocked Black Hole…"

Crystal looked aghast "You… what? I thought that for your kind creating a temporary black hole is a lethally exhausting technique?"

The Commander shook her head "Not if you're powerful enough, besides, you could do it too. Besides, it's more like the Scrin Rift Generators in that it's a portal to deep space."

The Librarian snorted at that "Heh, interesting that some of our pasts, well, your pasts, my futures, were in a reality that is only represented in video games here… and even then not the whole thing's represented."

The Commander nodded "Agreed… and funny how I found out about the reality of my world."

"I thought you were going to say how the whole Saren-Sovereign-Collectors thing played out in another reality?" Crystal lifted an eyebrow.

"It was too obvious, so I chose something else."

Crystal snorted "Right…"

After a brief silence, the Commander spoke again "How long do you reckon this Portal is going to take to get us home?"

"About four days."

"Do you think we should remind them that Truth needs more than water, light and air to survive? Not like me." The two shared a chuckle at that.

Librarian Liara smirked viciously "Nah, starving him won't hurt… much. No point feeding someone who's going to die anyways before we leave this Portal… your Future Sight does confirm it, no?"

"Indeed, now that the path to the future is not quite so hazy in the near future anymore, I can tell Truth will die, quite painfully." It was, interestingly, often harder to tell the near future than a medium-range future, long-term futures branched too much and near futures did the same, but in the middle many near futures would merge before too many large, radical events could overly alter the path of time.

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><p>AN: Wow, there's a lot of critics all of a sudden, last chapter, that is. Thanks for pointing out technical oversights, if you have any more, please feel free to state them in a review. I do not consider something a flamer unless it doesn't suggest any possible solutions and is purely about how bad this is. If you want to talk about how 800 years of ACU warfare and 1200 years total war cannot be resolved so quickly and the impact it would have on military designs, that is NOT A FLAMER! THAT IS VERY WANTED!

Note that someone may act a bit OOC next chapter, but that will be explained in 37.

REVIEW!


	36. Pieces of the Puzzle

A/N: Anomalous, there is a reason Chapter 38 is over Sanghelios. You know, as the writer of this fic, I feel the Coalition-Covenant relationship is more Protoss-Zerg, since the Coalition was getting pushed back as they simply didn't have the numbers (or the ships really) needed to make a stand (though they had the stealth gear for almost the whole Cybran Nation to keep operating behind the Covenant front lines).

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><p>Chapter 36: Pieces of the Puzzle<p>

_Med Bay, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872_

Forty-three hours… forty-three damned hours… and he was no closer to success than when he'd started. He'd tried nearly everything, the logo of the Asari Republics, Liara's head crest, the beautiful deep blue iris pattern of her eyes, even a model of the two ships that had borne the name Normandy. Every time, every single time, it held together until he put in the last of the shards… and then it fell apart. The same had held true for a model of Liara, the first thing he'd tried, a model of a Keyship, a model of a Forerunner Dreadnought, and a model of the Shadow Broker ship made of the blue crystal fragments.

So many failures had milked John Shepard dry of ideas for things he could associate with Liara T'Soni that could be expressed as tangible visual constructions. Hell, he'd even tried a heart shape, but that had crumbled as he put the last piece in as well.

This was why he was looking at the fragments, held safely in a containment field so he would not damage any more of them, with his knees curled up to his still-armoured chest and his chin resting on the matte black surface of his pants, despairing. He sniffled and wiped his eyes every so often as he stared at the shards, willing an idea to present itself to him that could possibly work. Barring that, he wished for the pieces to assemble themselves spontaneously…

Crystal floated up next to him and Commander T'Soni sighed from the orange matrix "I'll give you a hint because you just look so damned pathetic… back when he was still alive, my John Shepard mattered more to me than anything except our children. Before we had our kids, he was everything for me, he WAS my soul. Is that enough of a hint? I hope it is… or you'll be so busy with press conferences and stuff back on Earth that you won't have time to spend in private with Liara before then. I'll come around later, if she's still not fixed by the time we are basically at Earth according to Crystal aka the Librarian."

John nodded before rasping "Thanks, Legendary Commander."

The Commander in question waved it off before her image faded and Crystal floated away again "Don't mention it. Just bring her back. I didn't erase myself for nothing…" An echoing silence descended upon the med bay at her departure.

John was frowning intently to herself. "That version of me was her soul… what could it mean?" His head stayed bowed, but he looked down in thought instead of staring at the shards. "Oh…" He saw the custom patch on the chest plate of his armour. Liara had insisted on adding a blue Cybran logo behind and a bit above his red one, like a shadow of some sort, she had said she would always be with him, his Blue, his Azure. John Shepard's brain whirred away for a moment before he uncurled his body and reached for the fragments again.

For some reason, the pieces fit together perfectly to form the three outside sections of a blue Cybran logo… the core was missing. _Damn… that must have been the equilateral triangle I stepped on… Well, here go all our hopes and dreams…_ John Shepard carefully slotted the last chip into place, completing the puzzle. He held his breath, waiting for something to happen… waiting for it to crumble like the previous attempts and shapes had.

Nothing happened, and so he let it all out in a sigh just before the thing flared blindingly and energy strands somehow connected the three pieces. He leant back a little as the surface repaired itself, the pieces melded together once more starting from the innermost parts of each block. When the glow faded, he was left with the three outer shapes of a Cybran logo connected at their straight-line sections, the sections where they would have fit together if they were compressed, by little energy conduits of some variety. Gingerly he picked it up and was somehow not surprised that it held together without him holding all three parts. He frowned at the empty hole, the empty hole that he caused. _I hope this is enough to bring her back… or I might just hang myself out of grief after the Reaper War is over._

"That is no way to think young man, though I can't really blame you, bring it over and give Liara back her soul, boy!" Commander T'Soni's voice reached his ears at that moment, having read his mind.

He did not answer, merely walked over to Liara's bed, next to which Crystal was hovering again "What do I do?"

"Traditionally this uses a kiss but since her last memory is going to be literally being eaten by Gravemind I don't think she'll appreciate waking up with someone's maw attached to hers. She might instinctively lash out before her soul is fully re-synced, and with the new abilities I unlocked for her she could probably do a good number on the _Autumn_, yeah, believe it, you wouldn't be more than a mental twitch's work for her if she panics." The Commander stated airily. "I think we could just try putting it on her forehead, you need to do it, and make sure you touch her skin with your fingers as well. She'll recognize you and it will help her re-enter her body."

John hummed as he picked up the Crystal from the tray he had carried it on "Alright… let's do this thing." He carefully moved it over Liara's forehead and put it down, the crystal seemingly phasing before melding with her body. Suddenly, she began to hyperventilate, the first voluntary breaths she had taken since she had been trapped by Gravemind about two weeks ago.

Liara T'Soni's eyes flew open as she nearly catapulted off the bed, her armour's monitors going from the forlorn continuous beep of a brain-dead patient to a cheerful ping announcing the patient was more or less healthy. She looked around frantically for a moment, expecting to find herself trapped within the Gravemind as her last memory suggested, but then she saw the cheerful environment of a Coalition med bay and began to calm herself, slowing and deepening her breathing as she looked around again, settling back a little into the bed that had seemingly raised the back to let her lay back and be semi-sitting when she did so.

"Hey Liara, it's good to see you're awake again…" A familiar vice came from her right and she finally realized that she had not been looking at a matte black piece of hospital equipment but at the torso, more specifically chest plate of a man, a very familiar man. He sat down and bent down so he was at her eye level "How are you feeling?" John Shepard asked softly, not noticing the tears of joy that rolled down his face.

She didn't notice either, dazed as she was "John…" Her voice sounded a bit raspy from disuse, so she cleared her throat and did her best to smile at the man that clasped her right hand in his hands tenderly. "You… saved me yet again… how did you pull it off? The last thing I remember is the look of utter horror on your face before Gravemind's jaws closed on me again." She was frowning for more reasons than that… _I remember talking to him, fighting alongside him, dating him, mating with him… I can tell from the memories that we were going to be bond-mates sooner or later… so WHY DO I NOT FEEL ANYTHING TOWARD HIM RIGHT NOW?_ Her brain yelled at itself hysterically, hopelessly confused. _He makes me feel safe, and he saved my ass… again, but… the spark, at least from my end, is gone… where did it go?_

"I can answer that." Crystal—that she remembered—answered from her left, the pink crystal pulsing warmly.

John looked at the fragment in confusion, tearing his eyes away from Liara's face in the process, a most difficult endeavour "What? Is something wrong, Crystal?"

"Liara can still remember everything, the experiences you guys had together, however, due to certain reasons…" Crystal was ostensibly staring John Shepard in the eyes, but in reality she was looking at the equilateral triangle imprint, barely detectable, that was on his forehead. "She is having great difficulty accessing the memories of the emotional aspect of your relationship, or even the physical aspect other than sight and sound, like a typical vid. That's all she can remember of your time together… after all, I did state that the brighter the fragment, the more important it would be to the spirit that it came from."

Liara was completely bamboozled by this point "What are you guys talking about?" She asked, looking at John almost instinctively for an explanation. Her mind balked at the instinctive trust… it realized that they had been close, but it couldn't find that closeness in her soul, only an empty hole there… as if a part of her was still missing from the equation. It was like an empty hole had been torn through the very center of her being. She felt empty, needy, helpless… and a dark part of her hated the feeling, hated the absolute faith most of her had in John Shepard, hated how she couldn't remember the intimate bond they had surely shared between them.

"Liara… I let you down." John swallowed and looked down at his feet, unable to meet her eyes from shame. "When your spirit fragmented into crystalline shards… I didn't manage to collect all of them. It was a gamble if there was still enough left of you to put back together…"

She smiled weakly and pulled his chin up with one hand "It worked, John, I'm back now… and that's far better than what anyone else could have done… don't be so hard on yourself."

"No, I stepped on a piece, the biggest piece, the center piece, the brightest, most important piece to you… and I destroyed it." She could see the tear tracks on his face and feel the guilt, shame and self-loathing rolling off him in waves as he confessed to being the one responsible for this half-missing feeling she had inside.

"Did you do it on purpose? No!" She was surprised that she was so certain, not even a minuscule part of her thought he would say yes. That said something about how much she trusted him innately, and it almost disturbed her, though looking back upon her memories, even without the emotional connotations which she could not remember, which he had ground to dust beneath his boot, she could recognize that it made sense. He had always been totally trustworthy to her.

John Shepard sniffled and wiped his face with a sleeve, Liara's mind vaguely noting that she was the only one who could ever make him cry "No, Gravemind almost hit me from below with a tentacle, and I stumbled back a couple steps and stepped on… you."

Liara sighed "It's alright, John, I'm sure we can get the memories restored, made whole again somehow. Don't say it's not alright, and don't blame yourself… just help me."

"I'll do whatever I have to for you, to help you, Liara, you know that…" His face went from a determined frown to a nervous look as he realized something "right?"

Liara was silent for such a long time that John was beginning to bite his lip when she finally answered "Yes… from the memories I have and from my instinct to trust you… it would seem so. However, I don't know that… I can't know that."

John's shoulders sagged and tears blurred his vision again as he placed her hand back on the sheets and backed his own warm, strong hands away "Liara…"

To her, it sounded like someone in mourning. "I can't know anything… until I remember me." She grabbed his pale pinkish hand in her smooth blue one "Will you help me remember me?"

"The drama there was thick enough to cut with a knife." Crystal, who'd backed off to give the pair some room, whispered to Chakwas as they watched it play out.

John Shepard nodded fervently "Yes, yes I will… if you can still trust me enough after all I did to you."

"I've already forgiven you, whatever you did, but I want the missing part of me back again, to find some trigger that unlocks those memories… to be whole again. From what I remember, you are the one who can make me whole again… you can help me figure out how to do it."

Chakwas snickered back "Heh, you're telling me…"

"Alright, as soon as you're cleared to leave, we'll get to work, Liara, you deserve all your memories back, and you deserve to know everything…" John Shepard stated firmly before looking down at their interlaced fingers, adding in a whisper "even if it costs me you to give you what you deserve."

"If you keep on being sweet like that then I highly doubt anything would cost you me by the time we finish rediscovering everything in my memories." _Not to mention according to my memories you could make me scream pretty damned loud… were incredibly romantic, took good care of me… and let me reciprocate everything._ Her mind reminded her. _Goddess, the slate's been wiped clean of emotional attachment and what do we have here? A damned classic Love At First Sight Syndrome… silly Liara, that doesn't work out well! It never works out well… then again the memories say this is hardly "First Sight" for us… I'm insane for talking with myself like this._

"Alright, according to the monitoring devices… other than the psychological damage, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you, which means you're free to go. John, give her a briefing before she leaves, we don't want any of our guests to get hurt." Chakwas knew perfectly well that the only one who could heal all the Asari's psychological scars was John Shepard, and that physically Liara was still quite healthy, so there wasn't that much she could do. With her, Andrea Chakwas doubted anyone else except John could do anything for her mental state.

John nodded before turning back to the love of his life "We've made nice with the Elites, Grunts and Hunters. The Zerg and Protoss helped us clean up the Ark, so don't hit any of them with anything, it wouldn't be healthy for them. You remember just how powerful you are, right? And your condition?"

Liara had a perplexed frown on her face "Yeah… John, if I'm an Ardat-Yakshi and we've had many Unions before… how are you alive? I can't remember the emotional and mental parts of the memories, so…" She looked up at him with big blue eyes for an answer.

"I'm Cybran, I have implants and firewalls, as well as antivirus software in my brain. The firewalls were enough to permanently filter out and block the Ardat-Yakshi's psychic corruption so that it wouldn't begin a catastrophic feedback loop in my brain. That's how we managed to get all the benefits of Union with none of the side-effects. You never wanted to hurt me, it was something you couldn't control, and that meant you could get into my mind and I could get into yours without destroying my brain…" He remembered Chakwas was around, unusual that a Cybran would have such low situational awareness, even momentarily. "I think maybe we should head somewhere more private to continue this conversation."

Liara nodded and got up after the injectors pulled away from her "We probably should, go somewhere more private, talk a bit more, maybe figure out what happened to that bit of me you pulverized…" John winced "sorry, shouldn't have brought it up."

John shook his head "No… I need to face what I did anyways, it's alright."

Liara didn't realize she'd looped her arm around his until she noticed him raise an eyebrow at it. "I think my body still recognizes you fully even though my mind doesn't quite cut it…" She chuckled, a bit nervous about how she almost instinctively pressed her side up against this man who was her mate but with whom she couldn't feel the spark they must have had between them. Okay, forget spark, she could feel her skin warm up just touching him, even with clothes between them, it was probably more like a galactic-sized pyre back when she could remember it. "I look forward to getting the rest of my memories back…"

John sighed but still had a soft smile on his face as he turned his head to look at her, eyes locking with hers "So do I, Liara, so do I… AH!" He suddenly tripped over something and faceplanted on the ground, nearly wrenching Liara's arm.

"Huh? What was that? Oh, sorry Commander." The Spec Ops Unggoy called Two uncurled from where he'd been taking a nap in an alcove—apparently one that was too shallow—in the wall of the hallway and saluted sloppily (John had tripped over him). Thel Lodam had commented that Unggoy were not known for military decorum like that, and the two Spec Ops Grunts reminded the former Major Domo that they weren't exactly average Unggoy with all the crazy shit they pulled. It was at that point, when they had been listing their accomplishments, that Thel Vadam walked in and finally recognized the two as the same two who'd helped him smuggle out Kig-Yar energy shields back when he was still learning the Attack/Assault Buggy concept. They'd practiced with him, learning the skills themselves (ergo when they did it they didn't kill themselves). Needless to say, that made them quite old among Unggoy, well beyond typical life expectancy for Grunt soldiers, but that was only to be expected with their skills. "I should probably go sleep in my room on the comfy rug… it's just that I'm so damned used to sleeping on the floor…" He mumbled as he ambled off, John having simply smiled at him and shrugged instead of choosing to say anything.

"Ah, greetings… Librarian." Zeratul stated as he faded out of the shadows, saluting, John immediately glared at the taller Protoss and growled, putting himself between Liara and the ninja-esque sentient, which chuckled "Ah… I do not mean any harm by being here, friends… but recently contact with the Librarian has told us much… I am here to apologize for even contemplating the idea of fighting fire with fire… I had not quite realized just how much collateral would have occurred if the psionic intrusions of the tentacle had fried inside you… rather than being pushed back by your power."

Liara shrugged "You only wanted to help me by burning the Flood back the way it came, I do not blame you for it. John is another matter entirely."

John smirked and shook his head "Overly old people tend to occasionally lose sight of reality. It's alright, Doctor Brackman had the problem too, I forgive you."

"Still, I must apologize for my behaviour, now, I shall leave you on your way, unless you have something you want to talk to me about?"

"Could you teach Liara the art of putting herself under active camouflage indefinitely?" John asked the Dark Templar.

"I believe that Crystal informed me she will handle teaching Liara everything she needs to know to plough her way through life, including the art of rendering herself effectively invisible." Zeratul stated with a "sorry, guys, out of my jurisdiction" shrug.

"Oh, okay… I've got nothing more, Liara?"

Liara shook her head "I mean no disrespect but I'm more interested in getting my memories of my feelings for John back."

The Dark Templar's eyes twinkled slightly as his facial scales seemed to smirk. "No offence taken, it is only natural that you would want to remember your mate… remember yourself, above all else."

* * *

><p>When they ran into Samara, she gave them some advice after they talked to her about what happened "Crystal was right, you guys fit cleanly into the Asari theory of soul-mates. Though all spirits are to some degree compatible there is usually one or at most a few that are perfectly matched with one's own. Almost all Asari spend centuries searching, without ever finding the one or any of the few that are matched with them, before they give up the search as fruitless and settle for close matches."<p>

Liara had come to the correct conclusion almost instantly "So that's why the Maiden Stage exists… a soul-mate hunt…" She said, narrowing her eyes.

Samara smirked "Indeed, you are very fortunate, young one, to have found yours so early. MY friends and I did not realize we were naturally matched to each other until we all confessed to each other at once that we'd been seeing the third party behind the second's back. Needless to say, that particular gathering ended on a very pleasurable note for all three of us. You certainly inherited your father's sharp, progressive mindset."

"Yeah…" Liara stated slowly "John, I need to tell you something… When I was still very young, before my university education, in my early twenties, I decided the soul-mate concept was… stupid." She cleared her throat uncomfortably at that "and I decided not to go on foolish and dangerous adventures like all the other Maidens, and to instead focus on my studies and work. I never gave much thought to finding a mate and having children, always figuring that there were plenty of fish in the sea…"

"There were, and there still are." John stated, though slightly worried by her wording.

"That's not what I meant, I gave up on the idea of soul-mates and on looking for one. It seems Fate had other plans though… it dropped me right into your arms, literally, on Therum." Liara stated quietly. Samara rolled her eyes and decided to leave the lovebirds alone in case they decided to have sex against the wall.

Crystal had floated over and the blue-haired, oddly-eared Command T'Soni appeared "If you want to be specific, Fate wasn't exactly the one with other plans, I had a big part in it as well. I ensured that the Hannah Shepard that would be named that and give birth to John and James was Cybran instead of Aeon or UEF. That point was the first major one where you could have silenced him. Other than that, yes, it was the Powers That Be aka the Universe being a sadistic bastard… but I have defied Gods and Demons, and the Universe isn't as powerful as it would like to think." She chuckled evilly before continuing. "You'll remember things, namely John, as you do them again."

"I remember that quote entering my head as Gravemind drilled into my soul…" Liara said quietly, referring to the "I have defied Gods and Demons" part.

"I remember your voice saying it in my head, it made me fight on harder to reach you… but I was too late." John stated as they walked into his suite.

"What did Commander T'Soni mean about the universe and its sadism?"

"So that was part of the stuff attached to me, wasn't it? Well, I'll tell you…"

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

"So to sum up, there's a Game the universe is playing with us to fulfill its sense of sadism?" Liara asked, askance at the idea but not all that surprised as they simply fit together too well to be natural, as she'd instinctively sat on him and curled up in his lap when John Shepard had sat on the couch. He'd felt warm, soft in all the right places and firm elsewhere, radiating a sense of power and assurance that had felt intoxicating to her traitorous body, which was welcoming him back as a lover instead of someone she only half-remembered.

He nodded gravely, staring blankly at the far wall "Yes, and that's why I thought we should take a break, take things slow, until the Reaper War is over and done with."

"John, look at me." Liara whispered, pulling his chin around slowly, though without much resistance, with one blue hand and staring into his eyes. "That would be playing into the universe's hands, John, we'd be separated, and I don't doubt with how wonderful… and stimulating" they both blushed a bit "the parts of the memories I have are, that the emotional part must have been even more incredible, and if we take a break, then that would be even worse if I completely remembered you… remembered me. If you're really going to take a break from me, from us, then don't give me back those memories… don't let me remember me. I don't want to be hurt like that… please." She all but whimpered the last part, her face buried in his neck.

John Shepard felt like he was being cut by a thousand knives at the pain in her voice "We're not going to take a break then, we'll never take a break… until you want to."

She shook her head against his neck "That will never be."

His hands found their way to her head crest and the tapering ridges on the back of her neck almost instinctively, stroking softly, running his fingers along the firm and supple folds of skin and flesh. He was savouring the feeling of touching her scalp, his favourite area of her, not counting her eyes, as he mumbled "Great, because I'd be pretty lost without you, Liara, but what about the Game? Wouldn't being with me make it more dangerous for you?"

"John, after we got together the first time, we were stuck with each other, for life, I believe that, if either of us died while we were taking a break, it would hurt even worse…" She moaned as he hit a particularly sensitive spot, shivering a little as she felt herself beginning to heat up, his smell and the feeling of his body under hers didn't help, neither did her condition making her a bit of a sex addict help. "Besides, with the Universe being against us, though it still plays by its rules, whether we are together in name or not doesn't make much of a difference to it, if it wants to hurt either of us, it still knows to target the other." Liara stated, their faces extremely close together, both of them realizing at the same time that the gap was closing when their lips met in a soft, tender kiss. Liara's mind suddenly seemed to cough and splutter a few times before she remembered the times they'd kissed in the past, though all the memories were of tender, loving contact like this, like how she'd remembered she loved his hands on her head just moments ago when he'd been stroking her scalp. "Goddess… now I'm beginning to remember a lot of the times we kissed like just now… soft and tender like that… it must have been what the Legendary Commander meant when she'd said 'you'll remember things, namely John, as you do them again'."

"You mean… you can remember when we kissed soft and slow in the past? That means to remember everything… to heal all those parts of you, we have to…"

Liara nodded, blushing "Make love, yes… and fuck each other senseless too."

"Liara… you don't remember half our relationship, I'd be taking advantage of you if I made love to you while you were still half-ignorant of our relationship. I don't like the idea of basically raping you."

She ran her hand across his cheek slowly, noting how ever since he'd been brought back it had been stubble-free, though still with very small hairs that distinguished it from Asari skin textures "But it would be lovemaking that would make me aware of how we were before… besides, is it rape when the subject of it is not only the one who wants it to happen but is actively participating in making it happen?"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

"History repeats itself a bit too well doesn't it, Commander?" Crystal asked.

The Legendary Commander had a deep scowl painted on her face, almost like when she'd first resorted to Plan B's during a battle. And yes, that was the unveiling of the new class of strategic missile sub way back when. "Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about, but at least she didn't do what I did… or she might get the wrong set of memories…"

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

"Of course," Liara continued "We aren't going to just have sex for the sake of it… I want to try having a date experience first so I can remember the feelings I had when we were on dates before."

"That's a relief, I'm not sure I'd be able to, uh, function knowing you were compromised while pressing for, uh, me to press into you."

Liara giggled "Nice wording, you know how you didn't technically score with me considering we had a date when you were still non-functional after Sovereign. Let's have you score this time around, after all, it is in a way my first date with you." She moved her hands over his body and squirmed just a little, rubbing her own supple form against him enticingly.

He grunted approval of her movements before picking both of them up "Come on, Liara, we've got a romantic dinner to act out… EDI, can you generate holographic solid-light candles for us?"

"No problem John, looking forward to how your idea of romance compares with Joker's. At least he's not asking me for footage of women's bathrooms anymore…"

"I heard that." Joker grumbled over the PA before it cut out and the requested candles appeared.

"I'll grab the food." John stated, getting up and leaving, though putting on his codpiece rather uncomfortably to help hide the evidence that she'd gotten to him quite successfully. Liara smirked as he left, so her pheromone increase and subtle psionic influence had helped after all… she then frowned in worry, if he could be influenced, would melding be dangerous for him now? No, he could be influenced before unless he was actively blocking, and melding had never harmed him before… or maybe that was her predatory mind talking, the mind that wanted nothing but to devour everything in sight… no, she had to believe in herself, or she'd begin going insane just like Gravemind tried to torture her into. She owed John better, after he rescued her, than a psycho girlfriend who couldn't remember half of what they had between them and wanted to eat his soul.

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

"She really has no idea how badly history is repeating itself, eh?" Crystal was smirking evilly now. "Except you never had the guts to make John yours until…"

"That's quite enough, Crystal…Librarian, no need to go through that, I know what happened better than you do." Commander T'Soni replied curtly.

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

They were talking about life and their plans, at least, the plans they had had together, as the memories of the warmth between them slowly trickled back into Liara's head. Memories of how they held hands like they did now, kept their eyes glued to each others' (though of course also watching the threat boards for stuff just in case, unless they were on board their ship) as they talked, ate and simply revelled in the emotional bonds between them came back to her bit by bit. Still, it almost distracted from the current experience, so there was a reason to dislike it.

After they ate dinner, they curled up together on the couch again, leaning into each other as they talked and exchanged kisses. Liara knew perfectly well that from the moment she'd woken up and found him there, even if she had not retained even the video memories of their time together, she would have been doomed, so she didn't even bother trying to fight it. Besides, to resist Ardat-Yakshi psychic influence required something extremely strong, and she was more than happy to know that that extremely strong thing was his feelings for her. Yes, she was falling for him (more like crash and burn) extremely hard, again, but she sure didn't mind it. In fact, she wouldn't mind going further, but she had to get rid of his "I am no longer worthy" mindset first.

"John, you know how you're really angry at yourself for not being there in time?"

"Yes… Gravemind tortured you, mind-raped you, violated your soul, and it was all my fault for leaving you there. I was useless, I couldn't deal with that infecting psionic tentacle and had to rely on the Dark Templar to do it because I was too unused to fighting with Warp Blades to immediately think of them."

She shook her head "You didn't have a choice, John, I was being infected, corrupted… I could see, feel it crawling and sliding around beneath my skin…" She shivered "You saved me by ordering those Templar to cut the tentacles that bound me. Only psychic-based energy blades could have hacked through that infection strand with such ease. Besides, you were busy holding Zeratul back, even though he only wanted to help, it would have probably done irreparable damage. You saved me, John, you can't be so hard on yourself about that. I need you to heal me, and you need to forgive yourself."

"If you say so, then so mote it be." John Shepard wasn't stupid enough to argue with what was probably the strongest psychic in existence. Kerrigan could probably outdo her if she drew on the power of the collective Swarm, but that was a different matter entirely, much as Gravemind was a different matter entirely. Besides, for some reason, probably that Crystal's diagnosis had indeed been correct as Samara had said, he felt her words and presence soothe him, make him more comfortable with what he'd done, what he'd let happen to her. It was like he was forgiving himself simply because she said to do so. He wasn't all that surprised.

They talked for a while before moving their cuddling to atop the bed sheets, nestled against each other, their bodies fitting together seamlessly. The conversation trailed off to a comfortable silence in which John couldn't avoid his hands wandering their way to Liara's scalp and she couldn't stop herself from purring into his chest, which she snuggled her face into. After a while of comfortable silence and breathy sighs form Liara, she began to rub her legs together "If you keep on stroking my head like that, John Shepard, you're going to need to do some work tonight." She mumbled, inhaling deeply to get as much of his enticing aroma as she could. The darker side of her described it as "succulent, mouth-watering", she ignored it. "You're turning me on, John, be ready to face the consequences." She could feel that he was currently at half-mast, probably mostly from the pheromones and noises she'd been putting out. Excellent…

He frowned down at her "Are you sure this is a good idea considering you've just recovered?"

Liara rolled her eyes, though still smiling lazily at his concern for her health. If she hadn't fallen hook line and sinker before, she sure had now. "I'm physically perfectly healthy, and this is technically part of my therapy, isn't it, experiencing things again with you so that I remember all the previous times that we've had together in this lifetime… the touch, smell, taste and emotional aspects of them, right?"

"Well, if you want, Liara… lead the way."

She frowned, the wording was slightly off… and some of her old insecurities came back. She had wondered if he, practically the archetype of alpha male, would want damaged goods… "You know, if you don't want to tonight, it's fine with me, you know that right?" She looked up at him with a questioning look in her rich blue eyes.

"No worries, baby, my body is always ready to serve your desires… and its own." He winked as he rubbed the underside of her fringe, at the back of her head, reorienting his hips to poke her and inform her rather bluntly as to his body's opinion on the matter. However, his mind was currently wondering why she seemed so nonplussed about the certainly traumatic experience she must have had with Gravemind. She was also acting somewhat out of character… _Then again the best way to get in her head and see what I can do to help would be Union as she suggests…_

"Oh, so you weren't half awake after all, naughty boy, been hiding something?" Liara was surprised at how flirty she sounded, from John's raised eyebrows, he was too. "Come on, show me the way, you know my body better than I do, remember?"

* * *

><p>AN: Why is Liara acting a bit OOC (coming on a bit hard)? Well, we'll find out.

REVIEW!


	37. Reunions and Confrontations

A/N: NO LEMON UNTIL YOU SEE THE WARNING!

* * *

><p>Chapter 37: Reunions and Confrontations<p>

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872_

Liara T'Soni inspected herself carefully in the floor-length mirror for any changes to her physical body. It seemed nothing had changed… as it should be, certainly the inhabitant had, but the house had stayed the same since she had left. She wasn't sure if she was ready to enter into a Union yet but from what she could remember and what her instincts screamed at her John would not mind anything she asked for. After all, the last time, the last few times, her mind had joined another's had been horrific experiences where Gravemind had steamrollered his way through sections of her mind's barriers and wreaked havoc before being driven back. (It was somewhat akin to what any Nod or Scrin player would feel fighting off huge columns of Mammoth Tanks every few moments.) _Maybe I'm not ready for this yet, he'll understand, he always understands me…_ Her mind stated morosely before she shushed that part. _We need to get over the bad experiences with Gravemind, and our memories tell us melding, no,_ Union_, with John has always been a very… satisfying experience. Besides, we need to get the rest of the memories that make up us as a gestalt intelligence back._

She nearly facepalmed at the thought of mentally talking to herself and just how technical she was being while talking to herself, before she decided to put her clothes back on first. There were some things they needed to talk about before they got to the more… enjoyable activities. She left the bathroom after pulling her clothes on. Sure, they would be discarded over the course of the night, but they really needed to talk.

* * *

><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

"So the mark hid itself from her?" Commander T'Soni smirked knowingly "Her spirit knows what it wants better than she does… but she doesn't need an excuse to screw her boyfriend."

"You know perfectly well from your personal experiences that John will always have that stupid Nice Guy complex. He's gonna feel guilty and think he's taking advantage of her if she just got herself back together and wanted him. Hell, your version of John beat himself up the morning after because you were too young in his opinion."

The Commander growled before retorting "Oh shut up will you?"

* * *

><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

_So since both me and Liara have technically "died" one way or another and been "resurrected" to save the galaxy, wouldn't that make us… Jesus? Assuming of course that we consider the archaic religions… Then again, my father died, and Liara's got booted off Thessia, so that doesn't work out very well…_ John Shepard abruptly shoved his free time thoughts into nowhere as Liara came out of the bathroom with a troubled look on her face. "Is something the matter, Liara?"

"Yes." She stated quietly as she stood next to the bed, frowning down at her slipper-clad feet. (A/N: I call flip-flops, crocs, etc. slippers, just saying.)

John moved to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her "What's wrong? You can tell me…" he whispered in where he knew her ear to be. Asari external ears were the ridges on the sides of their heads after all.

"It's about Gravemind." She turned in his arms and sat down heavily, still looking down toward the deck.

"If you feel you're comfortable with telling me, then go on…"

"It's not a matter of whether I'm comfortable or not, you deserve to know… I think… no, I know I took some damage from him, from it. I'm damaged goods, John. You might not like what you see if we enter into a Union," He opened his mouth but she shushed him with a finger "I'm actually serious about this."

"And I'm actually serious about helping you remember everything… even if you never forgive me for what I did."

"You didn't have a choice John Shepard, I chose to stay on High Charity, don't blame yourself." She growled at him snappishly before her voice softened "I hate it when you blame yourself for anything… like I blamed myself for letting you die on the first damned Normandy…" She finished bitterly, feeling a twinge of pain somewhere inside at the memory of herself screaming and sobbing while pounding on the screen that showed the outside of the escape pod. "You didn't want me to blame myself for what happened to you, and I don't want you to blame yourself for what happened to me."

"We're both so stubborn it's like we were made to fit, isn't it?" John asked with a soft smile, his arms still wrapped around her, having moved so that her back was leaning against his chest.

"You always knew just what to say to make me feel better… Still, I warned you, you might not like seeing what a wreck I am on the inside." She stated with a happy hum as she felt him nuzzling the back of her head, where her fringe came together in a sort of bundle of fleshy, firm projections that could be nudged around independently. _Hey… wouldn't it technically be possible to fuck the BACK of my head too then? Kind of like with my breasts but less of a warp-around thing?_ A little voice said in her mind, and she put the idea away for some other time in the future as she inhaled her partner's scent, which was a bit thicker than usual but not irritating.

"You're always beautiful to me, inside or out." That made her giggle as he frowned at how cheesy/badly that came out.

"Okay, I think your sweet-talking is just getting cheesy… and did you just say something about beauty on the inside? That doesn't sound very gentlemanly to me…" She smirked before turning her body and grabbing his shoulders before pressing her lips to his. "Then again, from what I remember I didn't like a constant gentleman, just someone who knew when I wanted it slow."

The wink told John everything he needed to know as he leant back and laid down on his back, Liara moving herself on top of him with their lips still firmly attached and tongues stroking one another softly, her purplish flesh and his pink dancing with one another as they adjusted their bodies so she was straddling him. Tonight, he knew, she needed someone to make slow, tender love to her, someone she could dominate, instead of feeling violated by like Gravemind had done to her. A surge of hatred for the now dead entity ran through him and she pulled away with a frown.

"Don't think about it, John, it's dead now, it can't hurt me anymore… can't hurt us anymore." She whispered to him before sealing their mouths together again, feeling his hands snake up from her waist, one to rest between her shoulder blades and the other to rub the back of her head and her sensitive scalp. She could feel her crest softening some more as his presence enveloped hers in a cocoon of safety, and she moaned into his mouth as he teased her fringe and the softened ridges on the back of her neck. She could feel herself warming up with the contact, and he was starting to warm up too as she squirmed a little. She wanted dinner… _Where did that thought come out of?_ She frowned before voicing the question "John, is there any reason why I feel like there's this void in me that needs to be filled?"

"If you're missing a part of your soul, I think you'll feel its absence until it heals." He replied, eyes fixed on hers, which were still the rich blue they had been before his death and ever since they truly reunited. However, there seemed to be something missing behind those eyes—something she wanted him to give her the keys to—some of her memories. Chakwas had told him that some of her memories were still there but were not being accessed, like her brain didn't realize they were there. This sort of thing must have been what Andrea was talking about, she was hungry, and Ardat-Yakshi could eat people's souls, ergo… an instinctive desire to mate. The fact that it would accelerate a spirit's natural regeneration (which was usually astonishingly glacial in speed) to a more reasonable pace probably helped influence her into wanting to share her body with him.

"You're probably right… and it's probably why I want Union with you, so that you can make me feel whole again…" She sighed breathily, her hands making their way under his shirt before she pulled it over his head. They began helping each other out of their clothes after reattaching their lips together.

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><p>AN: LEMON STARTS HERE

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><p>Once they were both completely nude, he glanced down at where she was rubbing her slit over part of his dick, back and forth, as she hummed contentedly. Liara pulled away and looked down too, smiling a little at the glistening of her own lubricant on him. He could always turn her on so much… "I'm at your mercy, Liara. Do whatever you want to do with me." He stated, having ran his eyes over her body (which made her shiver at the lust she saw in his chocolate pools) and up to meet her bottomless blue eyes. She could see the tenderness and love that dominated over the lust and longing, and it confirmed that she had indeed made the right choice in pushing for this… here… now.<p>

She didn't reply, instead pulling her hips up just far enough to direct his very large tool into her and then sinking down slowly on it, groaning at the feeling of being filled just to the brim. Being created for each other had its benefits, such as a perfect fit with enough stretch to make her feel every vein and contour of him and for him to feel the snug fit wrapping him like a slick glove. The fact that she always secreted liberal amounts of lubricant and was a sprayer matched up with the large loads he gave her, and their sexual appetites were more or less evenly matched. The effectively common interests and similar opinions with enough difference to make it interesting made their match to be basically perfection…

Of course, the sex was great too as she was experiencing now, her body moving in sync with John's to give her long, deep strokes at a steady and fairly moderate pace as she met his lips with her own again while they made love. There was no sound of flesh meeting flesh due to the speed, but noises of pleasure came from both as their bodies became one again. John was first to say something "Liara… what of Union?" He whispered as both took deep breaths after breaking apart, though still conjoined in their nether regions.

"You might not like what you see, but if you want…" Liara dropped the traditional phrase as her eyes darkened and their minds intertwined. _Some part of you seems to be hiding from me…_ She thought to him, then frowned when there was no response and he stopped moving under her. "John? JOHN!" She shouted.

"I'm okay, just give me a moment…" He said, shaking as he processed her memories of her time stuck with Gravemind.

Liara realized what he was seeing after reviewing his own memories and she whisked the memories out from under his nose and shoved them in the mental compartment labelled "Please do not access", which he always respected. "Come on, John, don't dwell on the past, please…" She whimpered the last part, moving her hips over him in a circle and staring down at him with wide, innocent-seeming eyes. She would have probably looked more innocent if he wasn't buried in her to the hilt and had both hands cupped around her breasts, but that was beside the point. She needed to know he still wanted her after all the damage she'd taken.

_Damn it Liara! You know me better than that! I'll always want you, whatever happens! I just… I can't let you get hurt like that again, it's too much for me to handle…_ He felt a twinge of fear from her and a sense of vulnerability that felt like it clenched painfully around his heart. _It's too much for me to ever forgive myself for._ He explained.

She could sense his sincerity and accepted it before simply wrapping her arms around him and nuzzling him physically and mentally. _For what it's worth, I forgive you… and I think that you should start doing some work, big boy!_ She smirked at him as she thought the message to him. Perhaps, since he liked giving her pleasure so much, he'd understand better if he could experience her side of things? She stowed that idea away for later, focusing on enjoying the feeling of being with her mate again, the physical reassurance that he still wanted her despite what she'd been through. She felt a wave of playful disappointment at her train of thought.

_I'll always want you…_ She smiled at the thought message she got as he sped up a little to emphasize his point, though still slamming it home and almost pulling out on every thrust, stimulating all her sensitive spots almost like his cock had been designed for her… Right, it HAD basically been designed to satisfy her absolutely. Anyhow, she shouldn't have doubted him… he had always came through for her after all. Hah, that was an interesting way to word it…

"Oh that hit the spot…" She groaned as he rubbed along her g-spot rather hard and his organ pulsed at the same time, she could feel his heartbeat through it, and it was a reassuring feeling, knowing that he was alive and healthy. _Yep, I'm still healthy enough to mate with…_ He teased and she giggled a little as he resumed his steady pace.

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><p>AN: LEMON PAUSES HERE SINCE I DOUBT PEOPLE WOULD WANT TO READ SMUT FOR UPWARD OF 3000 WORDS AT ONCE. Also don't want the interruption to be between climaxes in the lemon, that would annoy people, ergo I'm putting it in here as a prelude to what's going to happen later.

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><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

"What's the latest status with regards to the Halos?" Hannah Shepard asked as soon as she established a Slipspace comm.-link to Hackett.

"All destroyed, every damned one, and our ships have blown them into desk-sized pieces. Only one was in Council Space but it was an uninhabited system, so it wasn't so bad. The Terminus ones were terrible, we stumbled into some pirates who'd camped out on one without releasing the Flood, thank whatever's out there for that one, and they got off a distress beacon. Ended up drawing numerous pirate ships in through the mass relay in-system and a Council Fleet happened upon it, tracking the pirates. The Terminus Systems are in uproar after we destroyed two rings in their space and the Council is asking us to explain the reasons behind sending huge fleets of capital ships. This time with all the new technology they've been putting in their ships I'm afraid they might actually have some oomph behind their demands." Hackett stated gravely "If it comes down to a fight we'll probably squash them over time but we don't have enough remaining ships of the line or the newer carrier classes to watch the Covenant Loyalist Border with large enough patrols and to deal with the Council at the same time, especially with all the new battleships of new classes with new technology coming off the lines on the Council side."

Dostya nodded "We really aren't dealing with those museum ships anymore… well, then we should negotiate, at least buy a week to restock on capital ships. From what I hear we've managed to with Separatist aid take back all of Cybran Space" Effectively one-third of the Coalition's space had been hiding behind Covenant lines, though not even the Separatists knew that yet. "And that's part of why our capital ship supply is nearly down to nothing… we simply ran out of steam after pushing back to the old border."

Hackett nodded gravely "Yep, there aren't even enough of the Destroyer and Cruiser classes left to make up capital planet garrison numbers now, even counting the Assault Fleets currently behind Covenant lines. Thank goodness we had so many crew reservists before the war and they learn fast, or we wouldn't have been able to keep up in crews. Opposite situation with the Covenant saved our asses." The three high-ranking officers chuckled at that. "Hannah, I think it would be best if you handled the situation with the Council, head there once you're back and the ships are repaired. We won't be able to provide much in terms of support but the Ascendant Justice can follow you in Slipspace just in case."

Hannah nodded "Alright, that works, and my son can handle most of the actual negotiating. He's on friendlier terms with the Council than I am after all…"

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><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 7, 3872<em>

The two lovebirds broke apart form another heated kiss, their pace having sped up considerably at Liara's behest and having turned onto their sides, one of Liara's legs raised into the air and bent at the knee. "You're so good at playing my body…" She replied in a sultry voice with a contented smile just before she yelped in shock when he turned them over. Her eyes widened a little and showed vulnerability and a flash of fear that made her lover wince at the sight.

"Is this okay, Liara?" John Shepard asked worriedly, not moving and mentally hitting himself over the head, noticing she'd stopped grinding her hips against him in tandem with his movements. _Stupid, stupid, she just came out of such a horrifying experience and here we are pinning her to the damned bed…_ He berated himself mentally.

She smirked and rolled her big blue eyes. _You might want to check your mental privacy settings, but it's okay John, it actually feels good to have someone I trust doing this, dominating me a little. At least I won't freak out if someone trips and falls on me later. You know, if we meet Wrex when one of those Unggoy are around and he doesn't realize they're there, that sounds like quite a probable event. I can also imagine myself running smack into an invisible Dark Templar and accidentally sweeping his legs out from under him by aiming too low with my mental attack, we don't want to cause too much of a diplomatic incident, right?_

_Yeah…_ He answered, still frowning even though she had relaxed under him now.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him all the way back in, as he'd slid half out as they turned. "That's better, keep going, John. I'll need to get over my fear of having someone else in control sooner or later… and this is the most enjoyable way I can think of." Her body was proving her words with how much lubricant she'd already coated his dick and by association his balls with, as well as part of her inner thigh when they had been on their sides. _I'm literally leaking juices… only you could make me like this…_ She thought as she pulled his body closer with her legs, prompting him to go faster and her to hum happily, still moaning and whimpering in pleasure as he continued. This was why she'd decided to skip the foreplay and proceed straight to this, this feeling of being loved, desired, safe…

_Only you could make me cum three times in a row without a break._ John replied, claiming her lips with his own and scattering her thoughts as he stimulated her body all over with his hands, mouth and even simple skin contact. _Speaking of cum, should I speed up?_

She smirked, her tongue still being sensuously stroked by his and stroking back. _You felt it, didn't you? Yeah, go faster…_ He obliged, and it wasn't long before she sent the next prompt. _Go flat out John, I need to feel you taking me as hard as you can…_ She could feel her juices running down her ass to stain the sheets and she was pretty sure from the squelching noises every time he slammed home he could hear the effect, but she could sense that he didn't care. All he cared about was satisfying her, and that made her melt a little more on the inside, though she hardly believed it to be possible as she was already basically a puddle of good for him to play with on the inside. To meet him halfway as he gave her the full experience of lovemaking, which was both familiar and unfamiliar to her at once, she began exercising her muscle control to start milking his dick as it ploughed her fertile fields.

"Liara, don't…" He pleaded, knowing it would be too much for him to take and he'd cum before he could give her a second orgasm. Privately, he knew that three days of staying up, even for a Cybran, was enough to cut sexual capacity down to one firing before they needed a bit of rest. For him, that would probably mean sleep. She had physically rested for long enough that she'd probably need as many climaxes as he could manage to be satisfied for the time being. If there was one thing John Shepard did not do, it was leave his beloved partner unsatisfied.

She grinned and her innocent eyes turned mischievous "Aw, is the big hero… Ooh yeah faster John… worrying about cumming… Fuck yes deeper… before his woman?" She almost purred, and then frowned at the tone she had used.

John had a sort of bemused expression as he raised her knees for deeper penetration, snugly bumping up against her cervix every time, he could tell by the feeling of the mouth of her womb kissing the tip of his cock in greeting each time. That only spurred him to go even faster, which meant he had to let go of her legs and brace himself on the bed while she clung to him, her body almost flush against his as their hips met with soft slaps of damp skin and squelching noises. "I didn't know you could purr."

She shrugged as best she could when hanging onto someone's shoulders for dear life while one's brains were being fucked out "Neither did I." She got out between noises of pleasure as her eyes began to roll up "Oh Goddess yes…" Her cunt began to spasm and contract around the very welcome, perfectly tailored invader as her mouth dropped open slightly, gasping for breath as her whole body shivered involuntarily. Liara's sopping wet pussy almost _sprayed_ lubricant that had been inside their walls and her womb out of her body around her lover's cock as she climaxed blissfully.

John Shepard shuddered as he kept up the pace, slowing only a little to make it more comfortable for both of them, and gritted his teeth against the tide of pleasure that washed over the bond. Sure, orgasms were not shared per se, but the sheer pleasure of one partner climaxing would generally set the stage for the other if not drag them along for the ride. Unlike what most men would have tried, he didn't bother thinking about non-sexual things, since he knew he could never resist the lithe Asari beneath him and it wouldn't help. Pure will worked better, it wasn't much, but it would be enough to let him weather the feeling of her wet, slick, very warm, comfortably tight and all-round wonderful pussy wrapped around his dick.

When her climax finally ended and even before she was done with the aftershocks, Liara's eyelids, which had drooped shut as she writhed helplessly in pure pleasure under her lover, snapped open. She smiled broadly "That was wonderful, John, let's keep going. You haven't cum yet…"

John Shepard may not have been surprised whatsoever, but he still wanted to question her motive for continuing "You sure, Liara? Tonight is about you, and helping you get over your troubles with Gravemind…"

"I know, but remember, John, even my soul when you rebuilt it was a symbol associated with you, you ARE me, so tonight's not just about me, it's about us…" She looked up at him with a cute pout and big, innocent eyes. Perhaps the situation wasn't so innocent, but John Shepard had always had a weakness for those eyes and nodded mutely, leaning in and kissing his lover softly. He pulled out of her body as he got up onto his knees and she sat up, their lips never parting.

Liara only had to think an image of the pose she wanted to do with him to get him to agree, so she rolled onto all fours before positioning herself a fair distance back on the bed, her feet hooked at the very edge of the mattress while he stood behind her. "Come on, John, fuck me…" She whined, swaying her round, tight butt invitingly and displaying her still slowly leaking, very puffy pussy lips for his inspection. She looked back at him expectantly just in time to feel his hand slap her slit lightly, making her twitch and squeak in surprise before thinking of something that would surprise him. She leant her face close to the rather large stain she'd left when she came the first time and licked the wet spot on the sheets, raising her eyebrow patterns (natural to all Asari) at him and smacking her lips at her own taste. That snapped him out of his observation as he put his hands at her hips with a gentle hold and teased her slit with his dick "John… please…" she whined some more.

He raised an eyebrow "You sure about this Liara? I want to hear it, you okay with that?"

She smirked and sent a gentle mental shove over their Union "Come on, John, just FUCK ME!" She growled.

He leaned forward and she had to tilt her neck to watch his face come closer as his hands moved up to grab her large, firm and deliciously soft breasts (his opinion). "Well then I guess we have no choice but to oblige your desires, eh?" He whispered in her ear ridges, his hot breath on her neck making her shiver a little and a bit more of her warm lubricant make its way onto his dick, which was rubbing along between her lips. John Shepard's breath hitched for just a moment before he pushed all the way into her mound with a single thrust and she squeaked at the sudden full feeling before it transitioned into a low moan.

"Yes… fuck me, fuck my little pussy…" She groaned as he began kneading her breasts and began to take her in deep, slow strokes of his hips. "That feels good…" She sighed pleasurably as he began sucking on her fringe, giving each individual fringe tip loving attention. They were rather similar to the human ear in texture, but thicker, more durable, and almost rubbery in their flexibility. She thought again about the idea of using his dick on them, but the result she got asking the question was a slowing of their synchronized tempo. "Aw… come on John, please, faster, fuck me faster…"

"Sorry, Liara, I was just a bit shocked after all… wouldn't I kind of smother you or risk cricking your neck if we tried that? I don't mind experimenting." An image of a previous sexual encounter when she'd levitated them above the bed came to mind at that, both bodies covered in a light sheen of sweat as noises of pleasure came from the couple that clung to each other tightly. "But I won't risk your health doing it."

_Well how about you sit on a chair or something and I sit between your legs?_ She sent the image to him, in it, he had a hand on her head, stroking her crest and another tracing a pattern across one breast, her fringe was wrapped around his dick much like how tit-fucking would work and she was fingering herself frantically, panting. _After all, the crest and fringe of Asari are, when aroused, major erogenous zones for Asari, almost as much as our breasts are, it would feel good for both of us… with absolutely no risk._

She was rewarded by a faster pace of him plumbing her depths and a loving pinch of her nipples "You really are perfect, aren't you?"

"You are too, John, you are too… yes, deeper, harder…" He obliged her as best he physically could, even activating what little biotic-related ability he had to increase his speed and force. With the relentless force pounding into her cunt from behind and bumping up against the beginning of her womb every time, hands tracing patterns all across the front of her body, clit included, and a hot mouth suckling on her fringe, it wasn't long before Liara's control broke and she went down to her elbows. Her face now centimetres from the puddle of her own juices that stained the bed from her first climax and the pheromones it exuded made her second climax take only a few more quick slams to reach. "You'll make me cum, John, cum with me… cum in me… I want it all…" She groaned as her body trembled and more of her juices sprayed onto his legs from around his penis, which was lodged deep inside her, pulsing hard before it unloaded straight into her cervix. "Ah… feels so good…" She groaned, her vagina milking his dick a few more times before she went rather limp, her lover being all that was keeping her from collapsing onto the bed. She hummed in satisfaction as she felt him filling her to the brim with his seed and smiled to herself at the feeling. She moaned in disappointment when she felt him pull out of her but then rolled over languidly to the clean side of the bed and pulled herself up to the headboard.

John Shepard sat near where Liara's feet were and almost instinctively went for one of them, rubbing circles over the soles and making Liara smile at him before resuming staring at her puffy, somewhat purple nether lips "Sorry I couldn't keep going for another round for you… your body is simply too divine for me to resist cumming." He mumbled apologetically.

"No, no, I liked it, very much. You should be more confident, John, I know you're an Alpha Male and you're always on top when it comes to dealing with others, you should be more confident around people who'd do anything for you… like me. Hmm… this should do it." She summoned a psionic straw that was bent in two places and long enough for her to use to suck up the juices that were leaking out of her body, without just scouring her cunt psionically for their mixed cum. Besides, the wide-eyed look on her boyfriend's face as he watched her sucking up her leakage was worth the extra trouble of using a straw (which, thanks to the control imbued by Crystal into her mind, wouldn't poke her cunt hard enough to hurt even if she tried stabbing herself with it). The fact that his hands never stopped rubbing her feet (having moved to the other foot now) was nice too. "Are you up for another round?"

He shook his head with a sad pout for an expression "Well, no, I'm starting to go soft… staying up for two nights in a row, nearly seventy hours now, wasn't the best idea for my libido."

"Alright, let me clean you off and then we can go to sleep…" Liara yawned before she got off the bed and knelt in front of her lover.

"If you don't want to…"

"If I didn't want to, I wouldn't be doing this, now would I?" Liara raised her eyebrows, before giving her man's tool a good cleaning with her tongue as it slowly shrank toward a more reasonable size.

When she was finished and they laid down together, Liara lying on top of John, waiting for the stain on the bed to dry up, John spoke again "Thanks, baby… for giving me this chance."

She smiled lazily, pulling her head up to look at him "Don't mention it, love, you can get away with anything with me…" She sensed something before a minute depression in the skin on her Shepard's forehead, in the shape of an equilateral triangle, caught her eyes. "What's this?" She wondered aloud, tracing the pattern as if entranced, sensing something immensely familiar within it. For some reason she was strongly inclined to touch her forehead to his, she didn't resist, as he wouldn't allow anything that could harm her onto himself anyways…

She gasped as their skin made contact, memories, feelings, and an endless tide of emotions and attachment washed over her mind, and she remembered… everything. Tender hours spent talking about plans for the future, current event, children, etc, nights spent exploring each others' bodies, and even more time taken up by working together one way or another all came back to her in one massive blast of sheer memory. She trembled violently as her mind reintegrated the data before going limp, only aware enough o hold up a thumb at John's alarmed calling of her name.

She rolled her eyes as soon as she could do so again, seeing that John had grabbed a gauntlet and scanned her medical status while she was limp on top of him. "I'm okay, just… whatever you had in your head let me remember… everything." She frowned "Wait, considering what you saw of me shattering into crystal fragments, that triangle…" She smiled so broadly it felt like her face might break "If I wasn't already sure then the fact that my soul sought shelter in you when YOU were the one to smash its fragment would confirm that you ARE my soul-mate… and to think that I didn't believe in the idea before we met…" She smiled, lowering her head to his chest again, interlacing her legs with his once more and humming contentedly.

"That's great… do you think we should go for a check-up?"

"The medical scanner says nothing's wrong, so I think all we need now is sleep… we can explore each other more thoroughly tomorrow, since I heard that the ground crew has leave, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Great, I may remember but I still want to re-familiarize myself with you first hand. For now, I think you need some sleep… we need some sleep." She settled down for a bit before suddenly perking up again, blinking sleepy eyes, whispering softly "You know, you're always so confident around others and one hundred percent alpha male but when you're around me… John?" She smiled when she felt that he was asleep and settled her head against his chest again, feeling the steady beat of his heart "I guess that just means I'm higher than you are in pecking order, that you should be the submissive one… always asking for permission to do stuff." she rolled her eyes to herself at the thought before nuzzling a bit against her mate's body to make herself more comfortable and drifting off to sleep.

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><p>AN: I'M SORRY READERS BUT I DON'T THINK THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO TRY SOMETHING NEW, MAYBE WHILE THE AUTUMN AND THE SEPARATIST FLEET ARE IN REPAIRS THEY CAN HAVE A DAY TO RELAX, BUT FOR NOW THAT'S IT FOR THE LEMONS. Also, many readers have commented that my lemons get a bit too long and tedious ergo this was only 3800 words total, both sections added together. I'm going to try to shave down the size of the things, make sure they're all under 5000 or 6000 words (at least, the amount shoved in one chapter), unless something really new is being tried.

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><p><em>Brig, CSC Pillar of Autumn, in Portal to Earth, February 8, 3872<em>

"So this is the Prophet of Truth… how much useful data does he have?" Liara asked Crystal.

_Nothing, I've sifted his mind for everything he can give us and put it in the databanks already, the Commander helped with the data transfer since I am unfortunately not too familiar with Cybran systems._ Crystal thought to everyone in the room except Truth, who was babbling something about respecting the Shard of Divinity.

"Hmm, so we can just silence him now?" She looked toward Thel Vadam.

"Yes, Prophet politics shift quickly, according to the relatively few San-Shyuum who have taken our side of the war against their brethren's lies." The Arbiter answered, looking away from Truth for only a moment. "Killing him or keeping him around will not change much in the way of things."

"Liara, your soul's minute fractures will heal over time but it would be more efficient if you consumed something to accelerate the regeneration." Commander T'Soni suggested.

"Alright, someone put him to sleep."

"No problem." The Legendary Commander replied before illusions of her eyes seemed to project outward and pass through Truth before he slumped to the floor, fast asleep. "Now, deploy Dream Eater, I've set up protection so any backlash from a failed casting will not affect anyone."

Liara frowned before she shook her head "No, I don't want to become a soul addict like Mirala."

"Huh?" T'Soni furrowed her blue eyebrows for a moment before nodding "that does make sense in a way, since it's a soul eating technique for our power levels… but it shouldn't trigger addiction."

Liara shook her head "Not going to risk it." The Commander simply nodded at that.

"Well if that's you choice then we can just torture him to death for what he's done, starting a galactic-scale war and such." Crystal suggested. "No one's going to feel sorry for him with the intel we have saying he's useless anyways."

John nodded gravely "Let's get cracking."

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><p>AN: I'm not about to show this Renegade moment.

Battle of Sanghelios ahead! Unless someone wants a 10K+ word version of this chapter with a lemon at least twice the size of the one given, which means over 7500 words total lemon… including the next morning, when both are refreshed by sleep.

REVIEW!


	38. The Battle of Sanghelios

A/N: Reminder to everyone, N7 minus the \ is 117, see? And that's why I tagged this fic John-117, because we have John Shepard, N7.

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><p>Chapter 38: The Battle of Sanghelios<p>

_Earth, Evening of February 9, 3872_

After a laughable incident involving the Cyrannus Colonials' second expeditionary fleet arriving at an annoying time (A/N: Expect to see this in the Thirteenth), things settled down. The crews of the expedition fleet that had gone to the Ark, fully healed up of their wounds, went down for the memorial ceremony while the ships were being repaired by the gantries that had moved into orbit over Earth. Hackett was the one making the speech…

"For us, the storm has passed. The war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure…" Hackett broadcast "Be they Zerg, Protoss, Sangheili, Unggoy, Huragok, Mgalekgolo, Seraphim, Human or any other species, their sacrifice shall never be forgotten. Though the worlds shall be repaired, this spot, Ground Zero of the Flood invasion, shall remain bare, as the island that once housed Black Sun shall remain bare, to remember those who fell. Whatever the future may bring, at each going down of a sun," the sun of Earth was going down even now… "And in every morning, we shall remember them." He ended his speech, and the tens of thousands of Sangheili, Unggoy, Humans, Seraphim, Mgalekgolo, Zerg and Protoss that filled the immediate area roared their approval. Interspersed among them were the equally vocal agreements of the small minority of the other Covenant races (except Drones) that had sided with the Separatists. The few Jiralhanae, San-Shyuum and Kig-Yar that had sided with the Separatists were initially looked upon with mistrust, but after they had fought, bled and died in boarding actions exchanged in space at the second major fleet engagement, most of the others had shut up about it. They held their heads high as they roared jubilantly in victory, unaware of the fact that Human and Seraphim psychics had long ago scanned them for treachery before giving them the thumbs-up. Not being used to the idea of psionics they had not developed sufficiently sophisticated mental defences to push the psychics out (it would be easy to handle for a Coalition citizen though, to prevent a police state situation from developing).

Hannah Shepard was politely clapping when a bit of data scrolled across the holographic HUD that floated before her whenever she took her helmet off "Hackett, the 54th Assault Fleet just sent a message, they are engaging Loyalist forces over Sanghelios, the Elite homeworld."

"Friends, we have a state of emergency." Hackett announced loudly over the speakers and the entire crowd, standing on the glass surface of a roughly circular patch of glass over five hundred kilometres in diameter (of course they didn't take up the whole space) fell silent immediately "We've just received reports that Sanghelios is under attack, Coalition fleets in the area are rushing to support but recent quantum disturbances from massed deployment of extreme-powered weapons have slowed us down somewhat, back to your ships everyone, take the Continentals for transports, and prepare for battle. The climax of the war is past, now it is up to us to wrap this up and take down the Covenant Loyalists." The crowd roared in approval as they proceeded in orderly fashion toward the Continentals that were parked around the area, having been the transports that brought the crowd down in the first place. Everyone knew rushing wouldn't help and would only trample people, ergo no one rushed too much.

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><p><em>Shadow of Intent, High Orbit over Earth, Evening of February 9, 3872<em>

"Things look different…" Rtas Vadum remarked as he looked at the hologram of Earth and monitored the progress of the fleet preparing to depart to battle again "without the Hierarchs' lies clouding my vision. Let's go home, and punish the Covenant Loyalists for what they have dared to do." The bridge crew roared in agreement, even the few San'Shyuum and Jiralhanae on the staff.

* * *

><p><em>Sanghelios, Morning of February 9, 3872<em>

Orna Fulsam NEVER expected to find himself in command of the entire defence fleet of Sanghelios, but right now, that's what he was, all fifteen hundred warships and one hundred and eighty Orbital Defence Platforms. Every few minutes more ships carrying soldiers and supplies would arrive, but it wouldn't be enough to face down the three thousand-plus warships the Covenant Loyalists had arrayed well out of plasma projector range from them. He found himself suddenly wishing he had the Heavy Microwave Lasers the Coalition fitted all heavy ships with for long range engagements, as plasma projectors were not effective at ranges over half a light-second and only had good accuracy within a third that range. His heart sank a bit more as more enemy warships arrived before he made up his mind. "Order Battle Groups Three, Four and Five to commence skirmishing operations. Maximize evasive manoeuvres and just fire for effect into that ball of ships, try to aim for the ships right at the front of the formation, make sure you strafe. Screw accuracy, fire at maximum effective range." He barked from the bridge of his Assault Carrier. "Remaining Battle Groups are to hold position until ordered to move." A bit over three hundred warships of assorted classes advanced on the enemy and began conducting evasive manoeuvres as they neared maximum effective plasma projector range. They fired as one into the front of the conical Brute formation before peeling off their attack vectors in time to dodge most of the return fire. They held position in their general area of space while moving about randomly to throw of Brute warship aim, and it worked, more or less. "Cycle back to the rear of the formation if your ships' shields get damaged to below thirty percent strength!" Orna ordered, and the formations began to roll to present undamaged shields to the enemy, but the cycling was a bit late for some ships as the Brutes' wildly inaccurate shooting actually scored multiple hits on them. It was a matter of spraying enough that you'll hit them regardless, but it took down a few Sangheili-held ships before they could cycle around.

After sustaining a disproportionate number of losses, the Brutes ran out of patience and charged, opening fire as the skirmishers stared them down with full broadside fire. At the last possible moment the formation of skirmishers broke up and spread out in a ring before firing one last volley and entering Slipspace for a tactical jump back to high Sanghelios orbit.

The Jiralhanae fleet surged toward the planet and met the main body of the Sangheili force in high orbit, immediately losing over a hundred and fifty warships from massed plasma projector fire and firing back with as many weapons as could be brought to bear. Despite evasive manoeuvres the Sanghelios Defence Fleet shrank to a little over fourteen hundred warships stacked against the thirty-two hundred Brute ships in the battle before they fired again, their formation parting on Orna's orders. "The groundside armies and militias stand ready… then we shall do what we must to defeat the Loyalists, Groups one through seven break up-spin and eight through fifteen break down-spin." Up-spin meant east, since by definition that was where suns rose. "Hammer them with crossfire as they barrel past us, volley your shots to achieve maximum kills. Make sure you keep up evasive manoeuvres." Now-Admiral Orna Fulsam barked.

The dumb Brutes ran the gauntlet, their numbers declining to twenty-five hundred as they flew past the Sangheili warships (which in turn lost nearly two hundred warships with another hundred or so crippled due to sheer volume of fire). The numbers were still overwhelmingly unfavourable, with only a hundred and fifty-two Platforms and 1102 warships against a fleet of 2552 hostiles, most of which were heavier capital ship classes.

The moment the Loyalist warships passed through the gauntlet, a shockwave made its way through the assembled warships approaching and over Sanghelios as the lead pair of Assault Carriers went up in four titanic blasts. Parts of their sterns and their pod sections flew back like shotgun pellets and blasting away at the shields of the following warships. Those quickly became targets of opportunity for the surface-to-orbital gun platforms staged in the deserts of Sanghelios (away from population centers) as their damaged shields and hull plating could no longer take the punishment of plasma projectors. A transmission was received from an unknown on-planet source at that "Well, those missiles were originally intended to level your cities if you had destroyed any of the Coalition capital planets, but with the new alliance it won't be necessary. I'm Ivan Brackman, bouncing this signal to you through the groundside control grid we have up on Sanghelios, firing the second volley of missiles now." A few sensor ghosts blossomed in a large circular area (almost a hemisphere of the planet) the Brutes' approach vector was in the middle of. "I'm on my way with the 54th Assault Fleet, let's take down these Loyalist bastards."

Orna frowned as skirmishing continued between the fleets, though the Brutes seemed to be doing so many panicked shots at sensor ghosts in-atmosphere that they weren't focused enough to do serious damage while the Elites exploited the opportunity "I was expecting something about how you didn't like us somewhere in that speech, but you have my thanks, Ivan Brackman." He frowned before turning to his sensor officers "Why hasn't anyone picked up these missile silos he mentioned?"

"I built them in the most hideously obvious places you could think of, so no one looked." Brackman replied "They're generally sitting right next to your surface to orbital guns… which by the way lack sufficient short-range sensors, or half-buried in the ice caps of your planet… which are awfully small by the way, normal for a planet warmer than Earth but still…"

"I am suddenly VERY glad that the Brutes picked an approach vector near one of the poles." Orna remarked dryly.

"Well so am I, the window of opportunity is small so I'm going to feed them as many YOs as I can manage, which means… by their ETA four missiles per silo, targeting for shotgun effect of debris."

"Shoot them as much as you want, I look forward to fighting alongside you." Orna stated as he watched the brutes finally get their act together and swat all but two of the eight incoming missiles out of the sky with plasma projector fire. Unfortunately those two were still enough to stir up their formation, cause a number of collisions and of course wreak mayhem that the Sangheili exploited, following the Brute ships as they scattered and shooting many down before they could attempt to land outside the cities. "You got anything to deal with their ground forces without destroying the cities they'll be parked near?" Orna asked Ivan as he managed the battle on his end of things, using wolf pack tactics to harass the Brute ships and slow down landing procedures (shields had to be taken down or at least weakened to allow gravity lifts to work). There weren't nearly enough Sangheili warships to cover all the cities or all the Loyalist ships, so he was restricted to harassing the larger landing zones, the ones with dozens of ships, not the ones with less than ten. After all, without shields, Covenant ship plating was only rated for two Plasma Projector hits before it would fail at the next impact… one if it was a direct hit.

"Continentals with units are being loaded up right now, just tell me where you want them, the 54th should arrive in ten minutes…" Ivan stated.

Orna highlighted the un-covered (by his fleet) hot spots all over the planet, a hundred and seven places in all "Let rip on them all you want, I'm not a Loyalist fan."

"That's… a lot of hot spots." Ivan remarked "But we can handle them, two Bricks, two Loyalists, eight Mech Marines, and two Tier 2 Combat Engineers to each Continental… check." The Bricks were for AA and heavy-duty anti-vehicle work, and the Loyalists were hit-and-run heavy hitters. The Mech Marines were to keep infantry under control in situations that required more finesse than the Loyalists' Iridium Grenade Launchers could manage, and the Combat Engineers were self-explanatory. "Moving out, Orna, we'll cover this selection of hot spots you gave us. I can't spare that many units to cover the other spots, at least not until the 54th arrives on the scene…"

"Understood, you have my thanks for the ground support." Orna stated with a respectful nod.

* * *

><p><em>Ten minutes later…<em>

The 54th Assault Fleet arrived in-system with a series of slipspace portals (quantum space had been too disturbed in the area thanks to the small battles that had occurred in-system before this final, epic showdown) and immediately proceeded toward the planet at full acceleration. "We're here, where do you need us?" Ivan asked.

"Brute forces are assaulting several smaller cities that your forces haven't reached yet, but we're holding the line." Orna replied, shrugging "The Brutes have failed to establish landing zones outside our larger cities thanks to our attacks, but they are holding them ransom now, threatening to burn them if we don't stop harassing them." He had known this would happen when they let the Brutes through their lines, but he had not expected it so soon, having thought they could shave the Brute fleet down to a manageable number before it came to this and the Loyalist fleet could be erased before they could do too much damage to the cities, with their planetary defence shields and all… but right now the Loyalists had too many ships… too many…

"No problem." Ivan replied simply "Are your cities shielded?"

Orna nodded "Yes, but the shields added together aren't as strong as a Super Carrier's added together." He spread his hands helplessly.

"Do they match up to an Assault Carrier?" Ivan pressed.

"The shield dome is equal to the shield sum of two Assault Carriers on these three major cities, the ones we are actually having trouble with. The Brutes have enough ships at these cities to punch down the shields before we can destroy them all. They are landed now but they can still boot up shields in time to deal some serious damage to the cities."

"Good, then the cities will stand up to Yolona Oss blasts near them." Ivan smirked before a metallic "STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" rang out somewhere behind the man.

Orna frowned then nodded "You make a good point, but if the cities get damaged…"

"They won't, trust me, as long as those planetary defence shields are up and as strong as you promised, they won't take damage and the Brute ships, without shields, are going to be OBLITERATED… get ready to butcher the other ones and move your ships away from the Brute ships. The missiles I fired were on another continent so they'll take some time to get here. You have time to back your ships off."

Orna nodded and ordered his vessels to gather near the other ships, leaving the three largest groups, each made of over a hundred vessels, alone… for now. Only a few minutes later, three huge blasts visible from orbit rippled over the not-too-distant planetary defence shields over the three largest cities of Sanghelios. The ground burned outside the perimeter of the city and trembled, but the shields held firm and when the Sangheili in the cities, who had all protected their nearly blinded eyes with as much as they could, finally dared look around, they saw that their protective domes had resulted in a teardrop shape of relatively un-scorched ground in huge black marks stretching outward for kilometres. It was not unlike the classic "Nuclear Shadow" left where people once stood when a nuke went off and vaporized them, scorching their shadows into the background forever. Each of the blast zones had a huge crater at the center and a few of the heavier Brute ships swaying in the air, usually with large pieces of other ships sticking out of them before plasma torpedoes from the smaller surface-to-orbital guns took them down, some needing projector help from the ships above.

The other Brute ships immediately booted up shields and scrambled off the planet as soon as they detected the streams of strategic bombers flying toward them. Seraph screens only took down a few of the tough bombers as they continued to pursue their targets, until everything became a giant fur-ball on low orbit, the remaining warships of all three fleets mixing it up. "You know, I was going to ask you why your fleet seemed much smaller than reported." Orna remarked as he watched the 1500 remaining Loyalist warships from the massacre they had been subjected to duel the 900 combat-capable Separatist ships and the 600-some remaining ships of the 54th Assault Fleet.

"Combat losses, I lost a few ships to total losses" That generally meant more than half vaporized and the rest dismembered "before the Schism, and then over the next few days I got into so many battles in a row on the Separatist side that I didn't have time to salvage wrecks."

"Ah, my condolences then for your crews…"

Ivan shrugged "Crew losses weren't even half the ship loss count, most of the tubs are slightly over-staffed now but we're handling it. Should we begin evacuating your civilians? The Destroyers and Cruisers can hold about two million to three million of our civilians in relative comfort so that should translate to one and a half million of your people per capital ship, more if we convert the hangar bays to evacuation state bays and use the space in all the bombers and fighters that can attach to the outer hull… just have to put on more clamps for that. We can theoretically evacuate your entire planet in just seven runs of my fleet, which will take about three hours if you don't count loading and unloading times. Counting those it would likely take a full day." Orna's mandibles had dropped and were twitching slowly by this point.

"Okay… anyways, where are your bombers? We could use some support here." His Assault Carrier and two others were duelling and losing against a Loyalist-held Super Carrier.

"Already deployed, coming around for a massed attack run on the Super Carrier…" The giant starship's plasma Chainguns and plasma torpedo launchers reoriented to fire at the incoming river of bombers. For all the roiling formation of wildly fighting starships resembled a star, the stream of strategic bombers that fed off the combined control network of the whole 54th Assault Fleet was like a loop of a solar flare in the star's corona… a disproportionately large loop.

The insane number of bombs hitting a portion of the dorsal shield coverage of the super Carrier opened a gap… a relatively small gap, but it was enough for the Assault Carriers to get a few plasma projector hits through and pierce the armour of the Super Carrier repeatedly, damaging it severely before the second "pulse" of the bomber group arrived and fed a hail of Proton Bombs and Quark bombs into the interior of the vessel. It wasn't long before the last Loyalist Super Carrier in the battle went up with a large blast that took over a hundred bombers with it and buffeted the Assault Carriers. The other two Super Carriers that had been there at the start of the fight had been destroyed already, one being ambushed by four Separatist Battleships and taking three of them with it in addition to many smaller vessels and the other being taken down by a wolf pack of Destroyers that had taken horrific losses from it. Still, now that the biggest hitters the Loyalists had were out of the picture, the balance was slowly starting to tip… until the 54th Assault Fleet's heavier capital ships started going up from sheer damage.

"Sorry, Admiral, but I'm going to need to pull my ships back a bit, Ravagers might be good at close range but the true design purpose of Coalition warships is to slug it out at mid-range." Ivan growled as he watched the crew casualty numbers begin rising and started throwing his bombers more aggressively in tides at the Loyalist ships, blowing apart one ship after another with a river of bombs.

"Feel free, I'm going to try to disentangle my ships too… we're taking damage too fast, need to give the gunnery crew accuracy advantage more time and space to act." Orna replied curtly before turning to his fleet command channel. "All Squadrons pull out to a safe distance and rendezvous with me. Helm; take us out on a fighting retreat. We need to use our gunnery crew accuracy better." He growled as the fleets began to separate, the Brutes taking the time to foolishly regroup instead of pressing the attack. Engineers orbited the Coalition vessels frantically, repairing what they could, but it wouldn't make much of a difference thanks to the huge amount of processing repairs would take with the ships (the "Time" part of a unit's build cost). Both sides were busy regrouping and trading long range fire when Ivan Brackman's next hammer blow fell on the Brutes, who had forgotten or neglected to beware the planet below, or rather the missile silos on it. The Loyalists' formation was utterly disrupted by a volley of missiles blowing up against their shields and throwing pieces of wrecks everywhere, using them as fragmentation grenades.

"NOW would be a good time for some mid-range combat." Ivan remarked, but Orna had already begun moving so that plasma torpedoes and projectors could be effective, as long-range combat for Covenant ships was basically pulse laser batteries trading fire. Coalition warships, on the other hand, had their primary weapons—HMLs and other laser weapons, plus plasma accelerators—right at the beginning of the range spectrum, at max range, and Ultrachromatic Beam Generators and Quarnon Cannons to fight smaller targets at long to mid-range.

It didn't take all that long before space over Sanghelios was cleared of Loyalist ships and the ground battles were wrapping themselves up. Mech Marines used their 70mm Autocannons to "snipe" anything the Loyalist Siege Assault Bots and Brick Armoured Assault Bots left behind and the Engineers reclaimed wreckage off of buried Separatist survivors and administered medical care as they "rolled" along at hundreds of kilometres per hour.

"Thanks again, Ivan Brackman, I shall not forget this day… we Sangheili as a race shall not forget this day." Orna formed a fist with his right hand over his heart, the near-universal symbol of making a pledge.

"I accept your thanks." Ivan replied formally, knowing that to dismiss it would be offensive. "I see your planet has sustained some damage…"

Orna's mandibles clacked together "Indeed, though our shields kept the worst of it from the cities, the countryside has been ravaged by plasma fire, I fear the colonies may have fared worse… the reports I received during the battle indicate that we have lost most of our agricultural colonies to Brute attacks."

"We can ship you guys food and assist in reclaiming your worlds…" Ivan offered.

Orna chuckled "With your terraforming technology, it hardly takes a genius to figure out that you mean 'deal with the problem for us' when you say assist."

Ivan shrugged "Well, no we'll fix enough for you guys to stand steady on your own and only help with the rest if you want us to."

"I accept your gracious offer…"

Ivan smirked at that "Good, because it's already started." Orna did a double-take at the globe display of his homeworld before realizing that the lines of glowing orange glass were slowly but noticeably receding, replaced by the brown of just-stirred-up soil. "Reclaimed the glass for mass and fabricated a trail of bricks of the sort of gravel we're looking for, according to analysis of the environment." Ivan explained "Then we ground up the bricks using our Engineers, used the Terraforming Suite add-on for that job, and afterward we ploughed the turf over after we laid down the well-ground-up turf, so yeah, it should be back to normal before too many years. We could seed it with local plants as well if you'd like…"

"As I said, your technology is remarkable…" Orna stated softly, watching the lines slowly being erased. "How would you seed it with local plants?"

"We used to use seed packets and plant them with a second go-over of Engineers, but since we got Chronotron time dilation technology we just grow them gene patterns and cell lines we have collected, stored, re-assorted, of course, to get variety, and then we plant the vegetative shoots in the ground after they've grown some roots too. The process slows the Engineer's speed down some but it's usually worth it."

"Ah, interesting…" Orna responded, what else could he say? "Well I don't think there will be any need for that, better to let it grow over naturally."

"Alright then, let's let nature do its work."

"Contacts in Slipspace, Admiral!" Orna's sensor officer barked.

"On-screen." Orna replied before frowning "That much mass? Take us back to combat readiness, just in case." There weren't that many ships left, the 54th Assault Fleet was down to 223 warships and Orna's own fleet was at a little over 300. The fleet they read approaching was much larger by the mass they were picking up, so it paid to be careful "Spin up the ODP guns again, we might need them, missiles ready, Ivan?"

The young Brackman nodded with a frown, Covenant Slipspace sensors were better after all… "Ready."

"Slipspace Apertures opening" one of Orna's bridge officers called as the holographic display for tactical data showed them forming. "Four hundred-plus contacts, classes… Coalition capital ship classes are detected among the Covenant warships!"

"Most likely friendly then, hail them." Orna stated, opening his mouth and getting ready to speak when he was cut off abruptly.

Hannah Shepard's scowling face appeared on-screen "Seems we got here a bit late. Congratulations, Admiral."

"Good to see you guys made it, Orna, where and how can we help?" Thel Vadam asked from the bridge of the _Shadow of Intent_.

* * *

><p>AN: If anyone thinks Pearl II would have been a big deal since it was the first Core World of any Coalition faction to get mostly glassed, you're forgetting the Infinite War and Seraphim War. Death tolls in the millions per day were likely the average… so no one is too shaken by a planet being burnt. The only problem most had with it was that it was a Core World. Therefore, I'm not going to milk that one example of a Coalition defeat for what it's worth, everyone's used to casualties.

I'm going to give the Reapers extensive anti-fighter capability (though like battleships in WWII swarm tactics will still work) and SMD (with their plasma accelerators) to make it more of a grinding war of attrition that will be won only by holding the lines long enough to crank out enough capital ships to hammer back.

**PROPOSAL**: Once the Reapers open the Great Rift as it will be known, have this galaxy meet Andromeda (Star Wars) AND the Triangulum Galaxy in a V-shaped slugfest. Triangulum can be filled up with the Babylon 5 powers. The problem is which period thereof, the Dilgar War (one where the EA are crushing the Dilgar beyond what is needed and thus seen as the main target of mediator talks), Minbari War (note that Minbari ship weapons are hideously exaggerated, 40 megatons per second is completely retarded for continuous beam… though Covenant plasma projectors are stronger, they fire in pulses, and not even Coalition warships have that much power output), Clark regime (ACU BLITZ once he annoys them enough) or their Reaper War? Yeah I'd be replacing the Sinhindrea with the Reapers… ergo why I would need to nerf Minbari warship weapons by at least two orders of magnitude. Actually, though it may not be a terrible idea, I think I've got enough on my plate already, four main fandoms already in for good and another galactic-sized fandom on its way… wait, couldn't I put Unknown Space in the SW galaxy as Babylon 5 (all the territories are absurdly small…)? Hyperspace is unstable there after all, so SW can't penetrate effectively, and B5 REQUIRES the Beacons… and the Vorlons and Shadows are too busy playing their little game to look outside, since time itself ensured no one would be entering their sandbox. Well, things are about to change… and hardly for the better. The key problem with timing is that the Dilgar War era would just be raping ass, the Minbari are only dangerous in space (note: give them Vorlon shield tech, otherwise if you could vaporize a Sharlin with a 2 MT nuke then a strategic missile would just blow up an entire fleet at once. Their Reaper War era would require a three-front war for Coalition forces, one against the Reapers at home, one in B5 territory, and one against the SW Empire, which is a problem. Also, ship numbers would be utterly disproportionate (perhaps I won't need to nerf Sharlins by more than 1 order of magnitude after all, to make up for this…) since the Coalition's warships (relatively speaking) would be battle cruiser like in principles: strike fast, hard, and GTFO before you can get killed. Except you don't Zerg rush with BCs… note also that infiltration attempts will be met with Omni sensors, which will render them utterly moot, so the Shadows and Drakh will not be able to use cloak and dagger tactics in the Coalition at least, and unless they can get something through the Rift they won't be able to touch the Citadel races, the Covenant has enough sensor tech to nail them before they get close and the best sensors in the Citadel Races can handle them too. I may decide to assign one of the old races, Vorlon or Shadow, as the Precursors, you know, the Mantle is designed to hold down the younger races, which is what the Vorlons and Shadows do. The problem here is that it's about to get blown to hell if I put them in.

Let's put the match-up this way: B5 has weapons capability matching or in the Minbari case far exceeding the Coalition's warships (strategic missiles not included), but are MILES off (excluding Vorlons, Shadows, and possibly Drakh) in their sensor, shielding, armour, mobility and most importantly STARFIGHTER technologies, though sheer thickness somewhat compensates for armour. Defence Grid Energy Projectors can find their counterparts in the plasma Chainguns on Mongoose T2 Assault Bots, so that's not too bad, though they distribute the same power (in damage points, which is less actual energy overall) over a continuous firing instead of rippling bursts. I doubt **ANY faction in any fandom** can hope to match up to the Coalition in **starfighters**… That's factoring in numbers and power, since Protoss Carriers field gigantic (MUCH more than a Coalition carrier type vessel) clouds of small and not-very-tough Interceptors in short periods of time and Starfleet can use "Attack Fighters" which are the starship counterpart of torpedo boats in squadrons, though obviously not the same total power nor the durability of thousands of T3 Strategic Bombers or even T1 Attack Bombers they still out-power them 1v1. Note that against Sharlins even the Coalition will need to resort to the tactic of "Stay out of range and stay evasive, but throw all your fighters at them from all directions, otherwise you won't stand a chance". The question is that if I include B5, how do I restrict the number of ACUs the Coalition can throw? Maybe make Andromeda unstable to long range quantum gating? So that actual delivery of the ACUs to orbit is needed before the ships' Gate Rooms can gate them to the surface? That's the only way I can think of to not crush the Minbari Federation in less than a day.

Someone said there were 70 million Reapers in all, in the Local Cluster and only the Local Cluster of galaxies, if I include so many fandoms perhaps that is a good number to settle on.

REVIEW! (Include opinion on proposal and ideas for WHEN in the B5 timeline **if you agree** with the idea.)


	39. Gunslinger Standoff

A/N: I know that for the B5 idea that according to canon Minbari ships would utterly rape everyone else except the Covenant (plasma projectors can only be taken by Coalition warships because they fire in pulses, if it was continuous beam it would be a table saw with plywood). Then again, in numbers, Coalition starfighters would rape everyone else except Coalition capital ships (which have enough mobility and anti-fighter weaponry to run and gun and eventually kill the small craft before they're killed). So things would come out rather balanced. The good news is that while neutron beams will be able to hew through Coalition shielding, fields and hulls with reasonable speed (like a GC's laser on Armoured Assault Bots) the Minbari shields are NOT EFFECTIVE against mass accelerator rounds, and Mavors/Triple Gauss Cannons are nothing if not high-speed explosive/antimatter hybrid shells. They are also horribly slow unlike Coalition warships which can go from all stop to max normal speed (0.05c or 15,000 km/s) in something like sixty seconds in ANY DIRECTION (in space only, atmosphere slows them a lot, and any faster and most weapons would start getting inaccurate ergo higher speeds are not generally used). Note that giving the Minbari 1000g's of acceleration means 10 km per second squared whereas the number I'm giving for Coalition warships is 250 km per second squared, 25 times that acceleration. Coalition missiles can accelerate at something that has to be over 30,000g's _in space_ and that's why they are even remotely useful for combat scenarios. Note that Citadel warships are NOW able to accelerate at something over 500g's which is far less than Coalition ships can pull off but still a lot better than before, besides, ME is a lot better for tactical speed bursts than any other system available, point, dash, turn around, fire, repeat.

One must also take into account that the Minbari would take two months to prepare the first real battle fleet, and take time to build ships, something like 30 per year per yard. The Coalition can field a heavy Destroyer/Cruiser in under 30 hours with a _3872 Ship Gantry_ (not the venerable 3860 Model, now classed as 3872 Light Gantry) **counting** testing time and crew settling into quarters before departure. Minbari neutron beams may decide battles in minutes, but Coalition vessels can perform quantum jumps in seconds and jump away after unleashing a fusillade of rounds (though this will take long enough that most commanders do not resort to it in favour of slugging it out). They can also perform hit-and-run attacks on Minbari space with relative impunity as Hyperspace is SO SLOW. Get a few carriers to unload all their starfighters and whatever fleet the Minbari could put up would need to race against time: kill the controlling carriers that are feeding extra power to the fighters for stealth systems (the cores of the fighters sustain themselves more or less) or die in the swarm… sounds like a Protoss fleet taking on a Zerg attack group (kill the Overlords to disorganize the fliers)…

Actually, I won't replace the Sinhindrea with the Reapers, just because it will be the first ever total genocide by the Coalition of Species, absolute extinction of a species without any quarter given. After all, previous bombed-to-stone-age events had only made them more vicious, ergo they will be one hundred percent annihilated with strategic missile carpet bombing with no mercy whatsoever. The problem with Sinhindrea nanites trying to assimilate things: Structural fields are impervious to nanites and damage dealt on too small a magnitude will be utterly nullified, so no bases are going to get eaten into the ground, while several dozen rakings of a planet by strategic bombers is a distinct possibility, with weeks of strategic missile carpet-bombing (YO missiles to be specific) following. Thorough life-sign scans will then be sued to direct MORE missile carpet-bombing. Yes, I plan on having the Coalition run smack into the Sinhindrea and killing every single last one of the foul beasts. Some species do not deserve to exist, simply because they have no concept of "too much to chew". However, that is not to say they and the Reapers are unrelated…

Still, B5 is all about glass cannons, if a 2 MT blast against the hull of a Sharlin can vaporize it, why the hell is the main neutron beam cannon 40 MT per second? Even a glancing hit would be an instant kill… unlike Covenant and Coalition heavy warships which can sit there and slug at each other for a brief time… Note that the only thing that lets Coalition shields stand Covenant Plasma Projectors is their pulse/brief beam nature. A continuous beam would be fatal quite quickly.

* * *

><p>Chapter 39: Gunslinger Standoff<p>

_Council Chambers, Sanghelios, Evening of February 9, 3872_

"This is… unexpected." Thel Vadam stated to the assembled Councillors, frowning.

Rtas Vadum, now the leader of his Keep (aka province) thanks to the Great Schism, snorted from his seat in the silence that followed the Arbiter's words "Come ON, Supreme Councillor, you must have seen this coming…" the Councillors chuckled at that and Thel rolled his eyes.

"Well, not really, I just wanted to, once I proved how incompetent the Covenant Hierarchs were, say…"

The Collective Councillors rolled their eyes and droned monotonously "I told you so, we know, Supreme Councillor."

Orna interjected, having taken over the job for his Keep as well as most of the other high-ranking people in the Fulsam Keep had not been as cynical and gotten their asses killed "Can we return to our discussion regarding the ambassadors we are stationing in the Coalition and the problem of contact with the Council that we shall soon be facing?"

"Right, let's get back to that." Thel stated, resuming his job of keeping the conference orderly and away from becoming a shouting match, though now endowed with a different rank to what he had before. He looked around at the purple curving walls of the room and the Councillors that sat in the rows of seats along the walls.

"Are you certain about letting Usze Taham have a share of the job? We all know that she is…" Someone, a male, began, but then his voice trailed off and an audible gulp was heard as a shadow loomed over him from behind. Councillors sat in random areas (to promote safety), though the pairs of male and female Councillors always sat together. Each Keep had a leader and the leader's mate representing them on the Sangheili Council. That had been the arrangement since before the Covenant was born. Most of the Leaders in the room were female now, as the Hierarchs had only allowed male Sangheili onto the High Council, and those had mostly died.

The leader of Taham Keep had glared the much smaller male down before she stood up slowly and menacingly "what were you about to say about my daughter?" She was quiet, but all the more frightening as she loomed over the male. At best, Usze's mother could be described as a dangerous sort of beauty (by Sangheili standards). At worst, most males would rather be fired down a plasma projector's barrel than to be caught in her anger. Of course, this was not true of her mate, who was commonly joked about by the male Councillors (usually just before their mates slapped the backs of their heads) as the most whipped male on Sanghelios. Of course, by the cuddly behaviour exhibited in public by the Taham Leader, he was probably among the most frequently laid males too. Then again, most males were unwilling to trade sometimes being used as a teddy bear equivalent in public for more sex.

The fact that Sangheili had mating seasons probably contributed to the fact that they weren't quite as eager toward sex as many other species. The reason why they even had regular sex was because although the mating seasons were roughly defined, females were technically fertile outside their seasons as well (though much less so). The reason, in terms of evolution, was not that complex: Though the spring and autumn seasons were the best for food supply for the hatchlings before industrialization stabilized food supplies, the other seasons were still good enough in terms of food that the limited number of hatchlings born in those seasons were supported about as well as any of the masses of hatchlings born during the mating seasons. In other words, the hatchling numbers (and survival numbers) closely followed trends in natural food supply, being fewest in winter and most plentiful in spring and autumn.

The male's mate was smirking toward her acquaintance and chuckling silently as her husband settled back in his seat "Uh, nothing…"

The Taham leader winked at the cowed male's mate and smiled "That's what I thought you were saying, the Coalition respects our Spec Ops soldiers because they can keep up with their Marines in an advance, and considering the equipment their Marines have, that's damned impressive. If they're happy with having Usze and N'tho act as our ambassadors, I say we oblige them. That being said, are they going to put up an embassy on Sanghelios? Do they need to?"

"Well, they could, and we talked it over, but we decided that since we're not opening out borders to tourists unlike their most generous offer…" Thel glared at the Councillors and they blinked uncomfortably. The offer had been made after the Council had sent the decision to not allow tourists.

The specific wording was that "We understand your concern about hate crimes by our people, however, your people can still feel free to get visas and come to our space for tours."

If the Council had gotten it before they sent off their decision, they would have been obliged to reciprocate, however, they couldn't really go back on their word… so they were stuck in a hole they'd dug themselves into. Needless to say, they'd taken the easy way out "…they won't plant an embassy here until it is needed, that is, until such time that the Reaper threat is over, the communication stations they put up are enough." There were two such stations, one being the backup, that kept Sanghelios patched into the galactic quantum communications network. "Regardless, we must discuss how many ships we shall send to support the Coalition at this upcoming confrontation with the Citadel Council and who will be sent to represent us."

The Councillors spoke as a collective "YOU!" Then they glanced around at each other, frowning, not expecting their thoughts to think in such unison.

"You walked right into that one, noble Arbiter." One said from the honorary seat he had attained on the Sangheili Council, everyone chuckling at that.

Thel rolled his eyes "Well duh, One, I guess I have the job of representing us after all. Anyhow, how many ships and what classes shall we be sending? Orna, Rtas, status report on current fleet numbers?"

Orna stood up "We cannot spare many vessels, Councillors, we have at best seven thousand ships left in all our fleets, only eleven Super Carriers survive now, of the seventeen that made it through the Schism. The Loyalists have at least ten thousand warships available, fifteen Super Carriers online, and the mothball yards are mostly in their territory… now we know why." Growls of anger rang through the Council Chambers at that thought.

"All is not lost though, brothers, the Loyalists cannot train their crews as quickly as we can and their ships are far less efficient than our own in targeting and such." Rtas added "So we can most likely hold the line and spare some warships, especially with the lull in the fighting, while Coalition warships bolster our depleted numbers and the Loyalists regroup." He'd stopped referring to them as Jiralhanae when it was found that there had been some Brute warships that sided with the Separatists and declared their Loyalist brethren too weak to see the truth. "The question now is what we shall send. I would like to think that my _Shadow of Intent_ would suffice for the purpose, as we can likely hold our own against any Citadel Council capital ship at least long enough to get out of there."

"Excellent, Rtas, I agree that it would be a sufficient show of force to declare that we are indeed strong and not nearly as overwhelming as sending a Super Carrier." Thel stated "It would also not be as much of a dent to our fleets as a Super Carrier." His mandibles spread slightly in a smirk "Besides, I hear the Coalition is only planning to send three ships, _Pillar of Autumn_, _In Amber Clad_ and their own Super Carrier for back-up."

"You mean the _Ascendant Justice_? They still have it?" Someone asked. "Can't we get the ship back? It would be a great help to our war effort…"

"They aren't giving the ship back because it's fair spoils of war and they've put too much of their technology in it already… they already shipped the Huragok back for example, minus the memories of their technology. However, they're agreeing to put it in a battle group that will be on call to assist us whenever we request it for the next five Galactic Standard Years, after this diplomatic mission is over and done with." Thel answered, that was about five Sanghelios years too.

"That's… better than I, and I'd think most of the rest of us, were expecting." Someone else mumbled, and there were murmurs of agreement through the Chamber. "Then again why are they sending the Ascendant Justice? Would it not be perceived as a threat? Considering it still has the distinct Covenant design lines… or should, it wouldn't' help us make a good impression to approach this 'Citadel' in the company of a warship over sixty percent of said Citadel's length."

Thel smirked "Don't worry, Councillor, they aren't planning to bring it out unless things get really, really bad, so bad that a souped-up Heavy Destroyer, a Heavy Cruiser and an Assault Carrier couldn't handle it."

* * *

><p><em>Slipspace, Near the Citadel, February 10, 3872<em>

"We'll be exiting Slipspace in one minute." EDI announced from where she was interfacing with the ship "the _In Amber Clad_ and _Shadow of Intent_ are holding relative position behind us." The Heavy Cruiser was to their port side and the Assault Carrier to their starboard, both holding one kilometre behind the modified Heavy Destroyer as they neared the Citadel in Slipspace. Intel said the Citadel Races had developed rudimentary Quantum sensors that could detect incoming jumping ships just before they arrived, and the wake they'd leave, giving away their entrance position before the dull flash of light could do so. Unlike Gating, which left wakes unable to be pinpointed even by Coalition sensors, jumping without at least a departure gate meant a huge-ass signal, which they were determined not to do this time, and coordinating between Warp and Slipspace was too irritating to be worth the effort.

"Supreme Councillor, you ready to hail them?" Hannah asked, Rtas had volunteered his ship and crew, and been immediately thrown into the temporary position of leading Sanghelios for his trouble. The Spec Ops commander had been rather annoyed at the desk job but taken it anyways because there wasn't much choice.

"Ready, we just need to make our entry." The Arbiter growled "Just call me the Arbiter, Supreme Councillor is too long and annoying."

* * *

><p><em>Bridge Destiny Ascension, Near the Citadel, February 10, 3872<em>

"Matriarch, we're picking up incoming contacts on the new Slipspace sensors." Those had been the only things successfully reverse-engineered off the Founder's Monument ships. The _Ascension_ was originally supposed to be based on the design of those ships, but they had found out four arms weren't that practical unless they were arranged in a cross. "From the mass… we should expect a small fleet or a few very large capital ships."

Lidanya frowned at that "Be ready to mobilize the ships of the Monument, if, and that's a big if now, we can't handle them, they will." She smirked at the thought of the new dreadnoughts the Asari Republics had finally re-activated and how much the Citadel Races' fleets had been beefed up since the Sovereign Incident.

A large Slipspace portal opened at a reasonable distance away from the Citadel, and three ships exited. Two of them had lines that roughly matched the reports of glimpses of new Coalition capital ship classes, while the third was wholly unfamiliar. Before the Matriarch could finish her command of "Hail them" the unfamiliar and large capital ship transmitted to them first.

"Greetings to the Citadel Council, I am Arbiter Thel Vadam of the Covenant Separatists, we come in peace and would like to initialize First Contact between the Covenant Separatists and the Citadel Council." The sentient resembled a Turian to a degree in that it was humanoid, reptilian, and had mandibles, but it had two pairs of mandibles with no apparent lower jaw, and lacked the barrel-like torso of Turians, it also had four fingers with two thumbs and digitigrade legs.

* * *

><p><em>Bridge, Pillar of Autumn, Near the Citadel, February 10, 3872<em>

"From their comm. chatter they expected us, that means they can pick up on Slipspace, seems Crystal was right." Hannah told Thel Vadam as they waited for a response.

"It should be about the only piece of technology they could reverse-engineer, so we should be okay with the _Ascendant Justice_ in subspace." They had installed a warp drive on the Super Carrier during the refit, in addition to making the shields one big bubble with underlying overlapping small bubbles instead of just in overlapping sectors. This way it could potentially take up to three YO missiles without being destroyed, unlike the original Super Carriers which, if they didn't shoot the missiles down with plasma projector fire, would be disabled or at least badly damaged in one hit from such a missile. "They won't be able to pick it up, though if the situation escalates like I think it will, we'll need to bring it in to tip the scales."

"It's a bit of a shock to see the re-done version of the Destiny Ascension by upgraded versions of original specs…" Hannah stated, looking at the hologram of the ship that was now a good eight kilometres in each of the five arms and a two kilometre on aside central "block" (though it was far too curvy to be a block per se) "Reminds me of a Forerunner Keyship."

"We welcome you to the Citadel, though the presence of so many capital ships seems a bit… overwhelming." The Asari Councillor stated "Would you mind if we brought our own chips… well, ships, to the table?"

Hannah scoffed at that "And your new version of the _Destiny Ascension_ plus the other ships of the Citadel Fleet isn't intimidating enough?"

"Well, we wanted to have all our chips visible, nothing in the dark…" the Turian Councillor stated.

"Go ahead, be warned though… if we are fired upon…" Thel Vadam growled.

"That won't be a problem." The Salarian stated smoothly before three Slipspace apertures opened and the signals they'd been picking up before in Slipspace dropped into normal space. Three ships, each if four long, slim pylons arranged in a tetrahedral pattern, with the glowing blue column at the core of the center part the only indication of bow-stern orientation, emerged, one obviously with extensive repairs.

Crystal snorted at the sudden silence in the aftermath of the three ships appearing, and the entire crew of the _Shadow of Intent_ dropping their jaws or mandibles. "Ah, they brought my once-damaged Keyship, and the other two, excellent."

"You were right again, Crystal…" Hannah sighed before whispering the first line of the prophecy the Librarian had given so many years ago "Three Keyships to the Asari queens under the sky… you're right, with time travel involved, who's to say you were ripping off of Tolkien or if he was ripping off of you?" She opened communication with the Citadel again, now with four ships of at least equal combat ability to their entire group around it, protecting it. "Very well, then we shall reveal our full hand as well, bring out the _Ascendant Justice_, Ariel." The Grand crusader had been put in charge of the Super Carrier in question, and now it was the Citadel's turn to gape as a huge portal opened and a gigantic prow passed out as if slipping out from a shimmering pool. Their eyes started bugging out as the ship grew longer and longer, seemingly never stopping… until its stern finally left the portal and it closed, the ship coming to all stop with its gravimetric drives, parking a fair distance away from the mouth Citadel. It was over sixty percent of the station's length, and since it was staring down the mouth of the massive station could lock all fifty-four Plasma Projectors on the three Keyships.

Of course, they were only passive locks, not active, for now, but the other three warships would handle the revamped _Destiny Ascension_ if need be while the Super Carrier delayed the three Keyships. As Crystal put it "They likely haven't unlocked or restored all the weapons yet. Believe me, a Super Carrier can take on a Forerunner Dreadnought and win so it should be able to fight these mothballed Keyships to a stalemate."

"Great, let's go negotiate, and remind them that we need to acquire and secure allies for when the Reapers decide to show up on our doorsteps." Ariel growled before Hannah could say the words.

"John, go to the Citadel, I'll be following shortly, meet up with Thel before you meet the Council." Hannah stated before raising her eyebrows at Ariel's hologram on her helmet HUD "Hmm, pretty blunt way of putting it Ariel…"

"What? Just because I'm Aeon doesn't mean I can't be rough and overbearing if I need to be."

"Yeah, I know, Eric sure didn't mind me turning the tables on you, hell, back when you hit him a bit too hard with that paddle he recommended I use it on you… while rubbing the sore spot on his ass." Both chuckled while Hannah noted John's Restorer leaving and the Arbiter's Phantom also departing.

"That was HIM? That man is so getting it when I get home…" The mischievous smirk on the woman's face belied what sort of punishment she had in mind.

"Ma'am, you do realize the squad channel includes our bridge crew?" Joker asked, realizing that his life may be in danger if he overheard any more and that it was best to tell her before she realized herself and realized she'd exposed too much.

Ariel nearly fell over in gales of laughter at that "Well then better not talk about this stuff till later, oh, and Hannah? This time you're not invited to my place after this excursion."

"Right, bridge crew, you heard nothing, saw nothing, and felt nothing, you hear me?" Hannah's bridge crew grumbled agreement as she stood on the cusp of the bridge door "Great, anyways, I gotta get moving, join the First Contact talks, you know."

* * *

><p><em>Citadel, February 10, 3872<em>

"So this is the Citadel… rather… unimpressive." The Arbiter remarked airily, looking around at the five ward arms with jaded eyes. After all, the station was smaller than such mega-structures as the Unyielding Hierophant and similar repair and resupply stations, and it was even lighter in terms of orders of magnitude, as it wasn't remotely solid unlike the _Unyielding Hierophant_, which was a honeycomb type structure but not completely separate petals anyways, and was thus FAR more massive (as in collision mass).

The soldiers guiding them, and John Shepard noted their equipment seemed a lot tougher and had significantly better power readings (still behind Coalition weapons technology progress rates though as they were on the 3.5 edition of infantry weapons now) than before, snorted. "This is the crowning achievement of the Protheans…" one of the Asari muttered.

John sighed at Thel's questioning look and transmitted over squad comms "We've persuaded the Council that the Reapers are a real threat, either that or they got nervous about our fleet build-ups and new ship classes, so they've been bolstering everything they've got. However, they still don't want to start a 'Mass Panic' of any sort so it's still more or less classified."

Thel's mandibles clacked inside his sealed Assault Harness helmet (worn for secret chatter like this) "Foolish but understandable."

Once they finally reached the Council Chambers, they began hammering out a treaty of non-aggression, and the Citadel Races were warned to fortify their borders in the Galactic East against the Covenant Loyalists, in addition to several agreements regarding arranging trade through Coalition territory for safety from the Loyalists. Hannah, having been authorized to make such agreements, agreed that the security of convoys in Coalition space would be their responsibility, though other escort parties were welcome, they would be expected to submit significant ID data to avoid Loyalist infiltrators (the Citadel's agents were left unmentioned). It wasn't long before the news of a second First Contact went out and the press conference began, though pretty much all of Citadel Space was already abuzz with the arrival of a warship over half the length of the Citadel and likely a similar proportion of its mass outside said station.

* * *

><p><em>Council Chambers, Citadel, February 10, 3872<em>

"So, Division Commander, let's get straight to the point, is there a good reason for the sudden Coalition fleets virtually invading our territory a few days ago or not?" Velarn started and Hannah smirked, at least the inglorious bastard was straight-up about things… more or less.

"I can answer that." The still-young Cybran woman replied before putting up a medium-sized hologram, as tall as herself, of the ring-worlds known as Halo, the same ring-worlds that had now been reduced to pieces, none of which were larger than your average desk. "Behold, Halo, built by an ancient and advanced race known as the Forerunners, one hundred thousand years ago, Fifty thousand years before the fall of the next great civilizations, the Seraphim Empire and Prothean Empire. The Forerunners had fought their own Reaper War three hundred years before the firing of the Halos, and prevailed against an enemy millions of years older than them."

"So why'd they fire Halo?" Armin put in.

"I was getting to that part." Hannah snapped at him before resuming her calm narration "The Reapers, having been defeated by a unified alliance of the Forerunners, Protoss and Zerg, found a way, they managed to indoctrinate enough Protoss, even though it was hideously difficult, to begin the Aeon of Strife among those who were once their creations. The Zerg, another Reaper-created race that had rebelled and literally clawed their way to freedom, were subjugated again with their hive mind, their Overmind, indoctrinated. While the Overmind was trying to fight the indoctrination, the Reapers crafted the Flood, a parasitic and extremely dangerous life form, out of the Zerg genetic material, but with less mutational capability so it would not evolve out of control. Then they deployed the Flood on the Forerunners and fled the galaxy, chased out by hundreds of thousands of Forerunner warships. The Flood spread due to the arrogance of the Forerunners' Senate, and soon it was overwhelming systems with impunity. The war continued for three hundred years, but when it became apparent that they would lose, the Forerunners devised the Halo Array, seven rings, that, when fired, will produce a pulse that travels via subspace and slipspace, at super-luminal speeds, by the way, to destroy the nervous systems of any creature not of Reaper creation or not under the protection of a Shield World. Reaper creations were affected to a lesser extent, but the Protoss, Adun's faction, still took their Motherships into intergalactic space just to be safe."

"Wouldn't the Flood still be around though?" Tevos put in.

"The Flood had much of their higher organizations wiped out, and what was left stared to death, except for the samples stored on the Halos for study by Forerunner scientists… scientists that never came to the facilities. That's why we destroyed the Halos, to wipe out the Flood and ensure you guys don't have a gun pointed to your heads… Any questions?"

Needless to say, after that statement, Thel Vadam went out to grab a (rather large) brown paper bag (some things never changed) with the logo of an Asari fast-food chain on it. (A/N: Same one Wrex will be visiting in Chapter 4 of ME: GC.) Sangheili, being mostly carnivorous, didn't fear heart disease since they, like modern man, Asari and Quarians had the needed enzyme to break down plaque. This may well take a while, so he sampled the local fast food (and found it nearly identical to Earth fast food though prepared with different materials) while watching the exchange of information happen in front of his eyes and being ignored. Sure, the chairs were a bit awkward for him, but whatever, the shock on those politicians' faces was too good to pass up.

* * *

><p>The rest of First Contact was reasonably amicable, including arranging a trade conference to be held in Separatist Space in thirty days' time, and things ran smoothly, the Separatists making it very clear that they were not going to be integrating extensively into galactic affairs and would remain within the Covenant borders until they were ready, and that trade would be limited for some time. The air of isolationism they gave off helped deal with the irritating press conference, though that was mostly dealt with by showing footage of planets being glassed. The reporters had been busy gaping while everyone else made their escape (when the lights came on again, the Council, Arbiter, Hannah and John were back in the Presidium Tower). Of course, the Council had been rather alarmed too, but after Hannah had pressed them into acknowledging that their current, fully updated and upgraded fleet, had similar weapons capabilities, they shut up about it.<p>

The four warships the Coalition and Separatists had brought left later that day on relatively good terms, ignoring everything in the Citadel Defence Fleet except the three Keyships and the re-made _Destiny Ascension_, the only four ships that were actually dangerous to them. The _Ascension_ now out-massed a Keyship, since the arms were much thicker than Keyship arms, but the Ascendant Justice was the heaviest ship and heaviest hitter in-system, and everyone knew it just from the visuals (as the 54 Plasma Projectors were all visible from visual scans).

Contact between the Citadel and the Covenant Separatists would be sporadic for years, since the Citadel wasn't interested in a military treaty regarding the upcoming Reaper War. That was when John realized they only acknowledged his claim because the fleet build-ups to their south, in Coalition Space, were beginning to scare them and they needed an excuse to pitch the idea of modernizing their aging warships.

* * *

><p>AN: I can imagine the Coalition meeting the Clark administration from B5: Earth being held ransom by the GODS system while the lunatic insists the Coalition warships back off. A single Shocker will be able to change their minds with a Quark Bomb… If anyone here has read A Universe of Change by AlbertG, think that… minus the total firepower superiority, but with much, MUCH better stealth and engineering technology. Not going to go too in-depth on the First Contact here because it's not that critical to the story… though ME: GC may eventually come around to cover it, and that will be a different matter entirely. Believe me, the Citadel Races are a lot more advanced than they look, it's just that most of those advances have been economically unfeasible for the military budget… no longer.

THE END (OF THIS FIC) IS NIGH! **NEXT CHAPTER DEALS WITH REQUESTS! (From Reviews Only)**

Chapter 40 will include:

Tali revealing her appearance to everyone

James/Tali lemon and John/Liara lemon (expect at least 4000 words from each, the chapter will likely go over 12,000 then)

Showing the Reapers with their next machinations to start another ruinous war, after all, over 80,000 Covenant warships take a long time to build, likely over a decade…

Besides that, request something (within reason, and I am not killing anyone off) and it might happen.

My parents (who are utterly unaware of the scope of my literary endeavours) have moved the main computer of my home into the living room, and I do not think it's a good idea to write graphic lemons near your parents, ergo Chapter 40 will take a WHILE…

REVIEW!


	40. A New Threat Looms

A/N: **This is one A/N you may want to skip… IT'S LONG.**

Does anyone else find Borg Transwarp Conduits and Mass Relays to be startlingly similar in principle? By the way, Kathador spoke truth when he commented on my Deviant Art images about how not even the Borg stand much of a chance. Think about just how many types of munitions the Coalition employs just for ship-to-ship warfare: Ultrachromatic Beam Generators aka Phasers (Phased Lasers), Quarnon Cannons aka Phased Particle Cannons, Hiro Plasma Cannons (aka Dual Plasma Beams), Plasma Accelerators, Triple Gauss Cannons, Ravager Plasma Chainguns, Triple Heavy Proton Cannons, Oblivion Cannons (various, resonating plasma rounds), Sonance Artillery aka Plasma Resonance Containment shells, Proton Artillery, Electron Flak, Antimatter Artillery (Mavor), kinetic energy slugs of various types, and Heavy Microwave Lasers (yes they can change the frequency and it does change randomly constantly to inflict max damage). Add in the Proton Bombs, Low-Yield Nukes, Quark Bombs, Othe Tactical Bombs and Zhanasee Strategic Bombs the various bombers chuck, not even considering the power of fighter-type craft, and it's over. No adaptability can handle… not even going to try to total them, too many… types of ammunition in an incessant pounding deluge. Still, no fear, I'm NOT bringing in Star Trek. If anyone wants to write a SC/ST cross with the Coalition I have, just give an acknowledgement and run wild with it.

Also, I will find weaving the Vorlons, Shadows, and the other Old Races, be they Forerunner, Protoss, Zerg, Reaper or Sinhindrea, into a plausible history (including the races of the Star Wars aka Andromeda Galaxy) a delicious challenge that's too good to pass up, so expect a two-front conflict at B5 and against invading elements of the Empire back home. Of course, there are a few races that the Coalition will be altogether too glad to let get pounded to the Stone Age or further, hell, I doubt that once they learn the truth behind Shadow warships that the Shadows will ever get off the ground with anything not totally mechanical again… I also doubt the Vorlons are going to make it out the way they were. The Coalition does have a thing of "If you're not responsible enough to be in space (and cannot change to be such quickly enough) then you are not responsible enough to continue existing" after all…

To **Anonymous**, Onyx Sentinels huh? Well I can destroy a starship _**without a weapon**_, watch me: *presses self-destruct button of the ship then GTFO* done, beat that. About B5 factions, believe me, Minbari Sharlins only need to jump right into their weapons range and they can slash Reapers to scrap very, VERY fast, the only thing wrong with them is that they are glass cannons and stupidly vulnerable to swarming starfighters, read: Coalition Strategic Bombers.

HAVE I SAID "KINETIC BARRIERS" EVEN ONCE? NO! I ALWAYS used "barriers" as another term for "Shields", most of which are multiphase unidirectional systems aka weapons fire can go out but not come in. I feel somewhat sorry for Star Wars once Liara's wild side is triggered by B5 events (if you can create an image of a 27-kilometer starship good enough to fool starship sensors… there's not much within reason that's beyond you), and a Jedi senses it (and starts Dark Side Alert-ing).

To Spacebar, see the end A/N about SW weapons. About Geminis and other Aerospace Units, see **CODEX ENTRY AT END OF CHAPTER.**

Sorry for accidentally offing PM, I somehow turned off all my alerts at once as well (no e-mail notifications), it was REALLY weird!

This chapter is MOSTLY **lemons**, however there are a few tidbits of information that are pretty damned important…

* * *

><p>Chapter 40: A New Threat Looms<p>

Aka Because the heroes need to get laid (in actual sight of the readers) more.

_CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 12, 3872_

"So, now that my fingers and toes have, er… finished growing…" Tali began hesitantly, wringing her now fully five-fingered hands in front of Hannah and rocking between feet that felt almost foreign to her. "And after I lost that bet, you know how I have to reveal what I look like to the entire crew?"

"Yes?" Hannah asked, somewhat impatiently since she hadn't gotten a good look at what Tali looked like yet, all she knew was that the girl was obviously mammalian, humanoid, and had lavender-coloured skin, since she had heard about it from James, but that was about it.

"I was thinking you could, uh, help me choose what to wear?" Tali asked, a bit intimidated by the Division Commander, and glanced at a certain Crystal floating next to the Commander nervously.

"No problem, Tali…" Hannah frowned suddenly "but first I have to see what you look like…"

Tali sighed "Alright… first time showing my face to someone who's not a Quarian and not James or Chakwas…" She went through the complicated procedure of removing her Aeon Medium Armour's helmet before taking it off and blinking. Then she waved her white and green armoured hand in front of Hannah's face "Hello?"

The Division Commander only blinked once in sheer shock before shaking it off and acquiring a savage grin "I know EXACTLY what you'll be wearing… when is this big reveal?"

"Two days from now, according to crew consensus."

"Great, this will work even better than I expected…"

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 14, 3872<em>

"Are you SURE about this?" Tali groused, examining her reflection in the mirror and fighting the urge to scratch at the claw-patterned purple shading that had been applied under her eyes, it was after all the first time she'd ever worn make-up and it felt rather unfamiliar to her.

Hannah snorted "You'll probably give half the crew dislocated jaws but James shouldn't be too surprised, of course, those shoulder pauldrons" They'd been based on the Aeon Heavy Armour's heavy shoulder pauldrons but altered slightly "will probably come off as soon as you get back to your quarters and get carelessly discarded…"

Tali pouted as she looked down at herself and the glorified bra she was sporting "Huh, I hope it's not me in despair at how bad it went, this is the most revealing clothing I've actually ever worn."

Hannah frowned "Tali, James has seen you in the nude plenty of times if I'm not wrong, what do you mean this is the most revealing?"

"Lack of clothing does not count as clothing, this does." The Quarian (not so much nowadays…) stated dryly "Alright, let's go out there and face the music."

* * *

><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, Lunch Time, February 14, 3872<em>

"So when's Tali showing up? And what's she going to be wearing?" Joker inquired, Ken and Gabby had just come into the mess hall looking like they were somewhere between extreme shock and laughing their asses off. They had of course been first to see Tali, since they worked together in Engineering, but the Quarian had not shown up to breakfast, so no one else had seen her yet. That was due to Hannah forbidding people from needlessly harassing Tali as "You'll see her sometime in the day, she promises she'll come around to meet everyone."

"She should be arriving right… about…now." Hannah stated while James just sighed. Tali had, after all, clammed up regarding what her choice of outfit would be for the next day…

On cue, the door opened and the crew turned almost as one to look at the un-suited Quarian who had just entered. Several seconds later, most of the human crew, except James, Hannah, John (having helped Tali with field medicine before he had a good idea of what she might look like) and Chakwas toppled off their chairs onto the deck in sheer shock before scrambling back up and resuming their gaping.

Tali blinked her silvery, softly glowing eyes a couple times as she stood there in the pose Hannah had shown her, then moved forward somewhat timidly into the mess hall. She felt bare and vulnerable without a suit of some sort, but she knew that with her hardened immune system and incorporation of levo-amino proteins she should be fine… so why was everyone gaping at her? Maybe it had something to do with the archaic bow and arrow included in the uniform, or the utterly impractical armour that was not of a design worthy of the term "armour"…

"I was expecting a lot of things… but I must say that a night elf huntress was NOT among them." Joker stated bluntly, only not having lost his voice because he had EDI. "Let me guess, do you guys have a colony world named Azeroth? Maybe a lost colony?"

Crystal spoke up then "I'm not entirely certain, but some Shield Worlds had damned weird names, I wouldn't be too surprised. Hell, one of our monitors is named…" A blue-gloved hand reached out of the Crystal and dragged the Librarian's image back in before Commander T'Soni poked her head out and stated rather too cheerfully "Don't worry, guys, it's something that's not too important."

"Let me guess, one of the Monitors or other AIs was named Jesus?" EDI deadpanned.

The Librarian's image appeared again, dodging swipes from her later self while replying "Well actually, that's true, and I'm quite sure another was named Muhammad, but that's beside the point."

Jack snorted from where she sat "Figures… say, Tali, would you happen to have capabilities such as magic?"

Commander T'Soni turned her attention from trying to swat her predecessor over the head and snorted right back "Magic is psionics, pure and simple, after all, the fact that Liara, any one of our spirit line, hell, maybe even some of us replicas, can make John cream his pants with just our minds… uh, gloss over the fact that I ever said that." She snapped her fingers and everyone minus the Shepard family, which counted Tali and Liara as members, blinked simultaneously.

"What were we talking about again?" Jacob asked.

The mess hall erupted in chatter regarding the possibilities of Forerunner worlds being the sources of much of Earth's fiction thanks to Monitors exploiting their planets' denizens for story purposes, and introducing possibilities of other life-styles just for kicks and experimentation on the descendants (and as Crystal added, sometimes the ancestors) of their makers.

* * *

><p>AN: For an approximate image of what Tali with the uniform Hannah gave her looks like, think this link with the following modifications:

http (colon) /images (dot) wikia (dot) com/wowwiki/images/6/6d/NightElfHuntress (dot) jpg

1. Shorter hair, at the very least get rid of the braid, Tali didn't let it grow out for that long.

2. Shorter eyebrows and ears, the eyebrows are like a human's, of course, the ears are still quite long, just not reaching past the outline of her head in profile view.

3. Aeon green on the plating instead of leaf green.

4. Actual dark pupils in the centers of her eyes, not all white.

5. No flaming arrow, Tali does not want to handle an explosive container of fuel for it without protection.

* * *

><p><em>Swimming Pool, CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 14, 3872<em>

"Liara, I need to talk to you alone for a moment, come over here to the shallow end, will you?" Crystal beckoned her over, brushing some of her image's long, silky brown hair behind her ears as she looked around from where she was, hovering projected above her crystalline "body".

"Sure, what is it?" Liara T'Soni asked simply, wading over in her violet bikini, she personally liked the colour because it didn't clash with her soft blue skin. John's opinion… well, he liked whatever she did with regards to clothing. When both had the night shift off, that usually meant the total lack thereof.

"Liara, you've been looking for ideas to use with John for Valentine's Day, no?" Commander T'Soni piped up as Crystal retreated into their shell and she popped out, her hair and what was visible of her dress a soft green and her irises a calm red for now, as she'd said her blue-and-orange look was too blue and that Liara was blue enough to not have a shadow of her past self be blue too.

Liara frowned "Yeah, haven't thought of anything really interesting yet…"

The Legendary Commander smirked at that "Well I have an idea you and John will enjoy very much."

"Tell me about it…" Liara watched her past self's imprint (more like copy) intently.

The Legendary Commander was very direct "How is the quality of sex with him? Quantity?"

Liara blinked before replying slowly "The quality is… blissful, and quantity's satisfying enough for the both of us. We are more or less built to order for each other after all."

The Commander nodded "I learnt the hard way that quality sometimes isn't enough, now lean close and I'll tell you something that will awe him… and be VERY good for both of you, though I hope you have no aversion to dealing with your own body…"

* * *

><p><em>James Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 14, 3872<em>

"Thank goodness that's over…" Tali stated, stripping off the modified armour plates casually and throwing them aside, rolling her neck in irritation at the restrictive pauldrons' effects, especially annoying when they were doing their PT regimen down in the gym. "So, what did you think?"

A pair of lightly tanned, strong arms wrapped around her waist at that question, just before a certain James Shepard nuzzled the side of her neck "I think my Quarian should be called a night elf instead."

She giggled and turned around in his arms "Besides that, James."

He shrugged "Well you were as magnificent as always, baby, everyone was gaping in shock at you. I had always wondered why you still hid behind your armour after you got rid of the suit." She'd sent her enviro-suit back to the fleet with a note saying her Coalition-issue armour was more than adequate, that was after the Collector Base, though she still kept the "visor and helmet" image for privacy whenever she talked over squad comms.

"You knew I was a bit worried about what everyone else would think of me…"

"Yes, and I've said this before, and I'll say it again, you always looked beautiful to me, Tali, even if you weren't such a goddess physically you'd still be beautiful where it mattered, on the inside."

She smirked "You would know, wouldn't you?" She pressed closer, eyes twinkling a bit.

James Shepard blushed and grinned back "Well I didn't mean that…"

She smirked and began tracing her hands over his well-defined body (though still with enough softness just under the skin to not be annoyingly uncomfortable to sleep on) "But you know it all the same, you've been bad lately, James, you haven't made a move at me for the past three days." Tali suddenly realized that when she'd chucked the armour pieces away she was left in only her underwear, though it was the more practical and sensible variety.

"Uh, you were worrying over revealing your appearance to everyone so I… uh, it would have felt like I was taking advantage of you when you were stressed." James mumbled as she tried to tug his shirt over his head (and succeeded once he let her).

"Didn't I make it perfectly clear that you can take advantage of me anytime you want?" Tali asked almost innocently, though her voice had a bit of a husky tint to it with the slightly clipped accent of Quarian-strain English.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't want to pressure you." James stated as she pulled him toward the bed aggressively, having removed his pants en route. He blinked as she spun them around and shoved him down with what seemed to be a wild gleam in her eyes.

"Well I want to pressure you, because you failed to pressure me." Tali growled, having flung away her remaining items of clothing on their way over to where they were now, and forced her lips down on her man's. "I missed this." She growled when they broke apart.

"You think I didn't?" James replied, raising his eyebrows. "I think we should take a shower first though, PT is rather sweaty…"

"Such sarcasm…" That was the moment that James realized Tali was in "dominance games" mode "I won't stand for this."

* * *

><p>AN: FIRST LEMON OF CHAPTER BEGINS

* * *

><p>He played along regardless, growing harder as her scent filled his nostrils and she basically saturated his senses. "Yeah, you're right, you won't stand for this, you'll be on your hands and knees."<p>

"Pinning you to the bed? Yeah, I will be." Tali growled, feeling his swelling member pressing against her body "Come on, mister, a boy toy should serve its mistress well… and enjoy itself at the same time." She winked at him before raising her hips and settling his dick against her slit, and then she slid her way down his pole, humming happily as her cunt was used for the first time in three days. True, she had gone long periods of time without using her nerve stimulators before their first time, but now that she had found the one who had been made for her and who she'd been made for, she wanted to take every opportunity. How it had slipped her mind in the last few days to actually give him a green light was beyond her… Maybe it was because she thought she'd made it clear she didn't need to give him a green light, but Tali guessed Liara was right, the Shepard men may be totally confident and alpha males normally, but the two women were able to reduce them to nervous teenagers. That was in many ways a good thing, since she could get whatever treatment she wanted from him, within reason, since he was still against some role-play ideas. She'd even managed to successfully wrangle him into pretending to objectify her when she felt particularly dirty and in need of rough treatment.

"Is there something else you desire, Mistress?" James looked up at her with his deep brown eyes as he conformed to the pace she'd set, though he was breathing somewhat deeper than usual as he plumbed her depths.

"Grab my ass and stick some fingers in it." Tali growled before whispering "Don't worry, I cleaned myself on my last washroom visit, even asked Liara for a bit of help making it very thorough… Ooh that feels different from what you usually stick up there, work it, mister!"

James smirked as he pulled his fingers out of Tali's back door, and shoved it into her twat, making the fit around his dick and fingers a bit tighter than the usual snug grasp, and drenching his finger with her natural lubricant "As you wish." He stated before pulling his two fingers back to her ass and working his way in past her tight ring of muscles to probe her internals, pressing in until he was in all the way up to his knuckles and rotating the fingers around in his lover's ass. "You're so fucking tight… Anything else you desire, my Mistress?" He asked before capturing one of her nipples with his mouth and nipping at it carefully with his teeth. His other hand moved from her hips to kneading the other breast firmly.

"You're good, my James, keep going… wait, no, I'm going to adjust my position a bit, be ready to keep moving though." Tali sat up straighter before pushing James' hips down and pulling him out of her, though she had to nearly kneel fully before he slid out, his dick trailing along the rivulets running down her inner thighs from her pussy. Then she rocked her hips forward and settled down on him once more, relaxing her anus and letting him push his stiff rod through the ring of muscles into her intestines. It wasn't a painful stretch, and she thanked whatever deities existed that she had been so well tailored for him, otherwise his dick would never have fit, and it would have probably destroyed her pussy if he went too hard too, since it was so fucking big. However, since she COULD stretch to accommodate, it was really damned good. The fact that he almost instinctively knew what she wanted was a great boon as well. Four of his fingers had pushed into her vagina and were now stroking her internal walls, including pushing against the smooth wall of tissue separating her cunt from her ass, and making the friction she was feeling in her back hole even more pronounced as the wall was pushed against the invading phallus.

"You're so tight mistress…" James moaned as Tali clenched down hard when he hit a particularly sensitive stretch of her gut, and aimed for the same area again, making her clench down on him again.

It didn't take too long of the gratifying treatment for Tali to feel herself getting close "I'm getting so close… so damned close, faster James!" Tali squealed as his thumb came to rest on her clit, the hardened nub particularly sensitive to stimulation in her current state. "Fuck me, fuck me harder!"

"Yes, Tali, gladly…" James replied just before he sped up noticeably, slamming home with every fast, almost violent, thrust into his woman's ass.

Tali climaxed with a loud cry of pleasure, she grabbed her breasts and pinched her own nipples hard, almost painfully, as her eyes rolled back toward the top of her head. James' hand was quickly drenched by Tali's juices and her ass was trying to strangle his dick into submission, or at least into giving up his cum, but he was holding out. "Don't stop! Don't you dare stop!" Tali shouted as she felt him slow down at the almost impossible tightness that resulted from the muscles of her anus contracting around his cock. "Damn, that was good…" She groaned as she took several deep breaths once her legs had stopped shivering. James surged up to meet her, kissing her fervently as his hands, catching her by surprise, raised her hips far enough for his cock to change holes before she shoved him back against the headboard. "Who… ugh… let you do that?" She hissed, though the moan of pleasure that interrupted it sort of dampened the effect.

"Sorry, mistress, won't happen again." He said sullenly.

"If you don't start working that muscle of yours, then yes, it won't be happening again." She whispered back huskily then hummed contentedly as he began to work away at all her sensitive spots. They both agreed that letting the other take the helm was much better for finding their own pleasure points and turn-ons than doing it themselves, and Tali was wondering if she should let him do whatever he wanted to her instead of playing with him like this. Sure, he enjoyed this a lot, and unlike the typical alpha male always asked just what she wanted from him, but like a real alpha he was at his best when he was ravaging her into whatever surface they were making love on at the time. It was always the time of her life for the young Quarian (ahem) woman, and from what James said and what she knew of him it was the same for him. Maybe after the rising tide of her next climax was over and done with she'd give him free reign over her body, simply because he always made it so worth her while. She didn't mind handing over the controls, simply because he was so much better at taking them to where they wanted to be, and besides, she trusted him enough for just about anything.

The (more-or-less) Quarian's legs were splayed, kneeling on either side of her human lover's hips now and he was sitting up against the headboard furiously pumping up into her for all he was worth, hitting most of her sensitive areas with his wonderfully sized and shaped cock in every thrust. It didn't take all that long for Tali to start climbing toward her next climax. James abruptly picked her up (she might be stronger, but she was somewhat lighter, so it was no trouble whatsoever) and swung his legs over the side of the bed before getting up, still pounding her pussy for all she was worth as he walked away from the bed. She clung to his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist to hold on, their faces still attached at the lips as they moved through the suite. James turned them around just enough to back through the washroom door, pushing it open with his foot instead of Tali. She smiled against his lips, even in the throes of passion he was still effectively the ideal boyfriend… "I'm so close… make me cum, James…" She gasped against his lips before the door swung shut and she was pushed up against it, James Shepard reaching a pace that bordered on desperation as his hips wailed away against hers, pounding her into the door, almost like he was trying to tear straight through her with every thrust. It was a matter of "almost" because though his dick slamming into her over and over came in deep, hard thrusts it never slammed her into the door hard enough to hurt as he held her up against the door and kept fucking her. She was making pleasured noises almost with every thrust now, but they were consumed by the hungry kiss he'd pushed onto her lips that she eagerly responded to.

James Shepard could feel his lover's juices beginning to trickle down his legs and the soft squelching noise of an absolutely sopping wet pussy being pumped for all it was worth, and it was heaven to him, to share this with Tali… "Cum for me, Tali, cum for me…" He whispered in her long, pointed ears as he roughly squeezed her breasts, her hands clasped behind his back and her legs still wrapped around his waist as she clung to him, shuddering in pleasure.

Tali whimpered her agreement and stopped trying to hold back, trying to wait "Oh… oh… damn it, so close, deeper James! Harder! Pound it right through the door! Cum in me! Cum with me!" She cried out before his wonderful dick drove her to another climax and her body shivered violently, letting out a long moan into her lover's neck as he slowed slightly to accommodate her spasming muscles. Once she finally stopped spraying out from around him, he lifted her far enough to detach himself from her and set her down on her now quite wobbly feet. Absently she noted that she couldn't give him a foot-job easily anymore, since her feet had acquired the configuration of a human foot and had five toes, with no gap where the second and third had once been missing courtesy of growing on a dextro-amino diet. Levo-amino food had made her basically a member of a subspecies of humans.

"Come on, Tali, let's get you cleaned up." James whispered.

She slapped his chest playfully as he helped her toward the shower "James Shepard, you are NOT getting away with this!" She ran two of her fingers—one her newly-grown middle finger—over his balls, almost as if testing their heavy weight. "You can have control for the rest of tonight, do whatever you want with me, I know I'll enjoy it."

"You're sure? You know, if you want me to stop, just say so."

Tali snorted as she adjusted the water temperature to what they both liked from her seat on the toilet, emptying her bladder in preparation for the reaming that she was sure would follow this shower. James was turning the steam generators in the room on for warmth in case they decided to have a romp without towelling off "If you do it within reason I'll probably be screaming encouragement for more than half the night, James."

"Agreed, so, what about insults?"

Tali traced her hands over his muscles, feeling how solid they were compared to her still-trembling legs, as they rinsed themselves off before shutting the tap, knowing that there would be much more fucking to be done, for after all it was Valentines' Day… "You know perfectly well that those words coming out of your mouth just make me feel dirty and good in some sick way that even I don't understand, unlike everyone else who just gets shown my flamethrower."

"Tali are you really sure about this?" James asked nervously, still completely blown away at the fact that his lover didn't mind switching shifts at the helm and in fact liked rough sex.

* * *

><p>"Kid's still nervous…" Crystal groused "Kinda like one of those versions from way back, in that particular version, well, Tali's past was a lot worse, and that was why that version of him never pressured her and she had to make all the advances… unless he was asleep at the time in which case sometimes his body did a lot more touching than he would have normally."<p>

The Legendary Commander snorted from where she was watching psionically "Enlighten me as to which one you're talking about again? My version of Tali practically raped James for a week about a month after they started having sex when she hit her mating season… forgot to take her supplements to stop her from going all sex-crazed."

"Really? Wow, that's different from her usual, normally she's a bit timid but wild once you get past it. The version I'm talking about got to know James as, well, an abused POW, he was the one who saved her. Being a powerful general's son had its benefits when he came around to check out the camp, and the moment he saw what was happening to the POWs he had the guards executed and freed all of them, except Tali. The troops at the camp liked her the most because she was the most attractive so the mages put a sort of seal on her that made sure she couldn't leave a certain radius around human troops willingly for ten years. Being a Night Elf with no magical capability and a tech orientation really sucked, since she couldn't even break free of the seal… even after James had all the mages involved executed. She ended up joining the mechanics for the ensuing battles just for something to do, and eventually she fell for James even though she hated humans…"

The Commander was gaping by this point "…night elves, are you serious?"

Crystal rolled her eyes before looking back at the pair they were spying on "The question is, how does Tali have no aversion to being used like a whore? Maybe it's just sheer faith in the person on the other end… after all, she eventually trusted James enough even in that particular edition to become his lover and eventually they tied the knot…"

"Heh… that's the norm, even my version of those two did, even though she deviated from her normal Fire tendencies, she went with Ice instead, and instead of her usual solider than a rock… and yes that's a Yuri's Revenge quote… can hardly believe one version of us was in the Tiberium timeline…"

Crystal snorted "Tell me about it."

"Anyhow, my version of Tali was rather… ghostly, as opposed to her usual solider than a rock tendencies."

* * *

><p>She frowned up at him "You know, if you don't want to…"<p>

The man bit his lip "That's the scary part, this sort of thing is a wet dream for so many men and boys that I might be a bit too eager for it."

Tali smiled her usual brilliant and sexy smile "That's great, we can both enjoy ourselves… thoroughly then. Go on, do whatever you want to or with me." She suddenly felt the arms that had been holding her up start gently pushing her down and her legs bent almost automatically, a momentary tug up from James ensuring she landed softly on her knees before she was brought nose-to-nose with a certain part of her lover's anatomy that was throbbing and almost purple. "Oh, so you want me to finish what I started?" She teased, giving the head of the phallus a lick, very happy from the taste of her own cum that she had prevented him from washing that part of his body so far.

"Yes, you didn't give me a chance to cum, and now it's time to suck your own ass off of my dick, my little Tali." He growled menacingly, though she knew it was all in good fun she couldn't help but be a bit excited by the aggressiveness he was showing, though she knew a word from her would stop this entire thing in its tracks. She smirked and licked the tip again before he threaded his hands into her hair, one on either side of her head, and pulled her in, the organ depressing far enough to be shoved all the way down her throat until her nose met the relatively thin patch of pubic hair that her lover had. Then James began to give her something she had never experienced before, a real face-fucking, complete with dirty talk "You like that, you little whore? Take it, take it all the way!" It made her squeeze her thighs together as he fucked her mouth with the fire in her belly. After a few rough thrusts he pulled back a bit "This okay, Tali?" he asked in a voice more normal for him, and she nodded and grinned as she suckled on the head of his dick, taking a few deep breaths. Then he resumed fucking her mouth with deep thrusts of his hips, using her throat as a pump for his rather huge dick and violating her mouth in a way that turned on something absolutely bestial in Tali'Zorah. She knew she liked pleasuring him any way he wanted, but she had never known that sucking her man's dick could be this damned good… or so pleasurable for herself. He pumped her throat for a few good thrusts before pulling back into her mouth to let her breathe deep, then push forward to violate her throat once more when she'd filled her lungs with fresh air again. It was like he knew just when she needed some fresh air, if their bond was so close, she couldn't imaging how her man's twin and his Asari were. Then again, Tali wasn't that interested at the moment as James' cock's throbbing reached critical mass when he pulled into just her mouth again. She _needed_ to take a couple breaths before she could start trying to swallow everything he shot into her mouth…

While he was spewing his sperm into her maw, James Shepard was continuing the same dirty talk that he suspected was responsible for Tali's hands furiously fingering both her front and back doors as she let him fuck her mouth "How do you like me filling your little hole my bitch?" She let out a sort of gurgle and some of his cum leaked out of the corner of her mouth. The sight of his white goo trailing down her chin led him to shoot another, larger white blast straight into her already-full mouth, and that spilled right over as Tali seemed to forget how to breathe, focusing on the feeling of hot white spunk dripping off her face onto her breasts. Then she felt her head get moved back so she could breathe with her mouth, and that reminded her to start breathing again as she closed her eyes, knowing what James intended to do. The next few shots splashed all over her lavender-skinned face as she swallowed what she had been able to hold onto in her mouth. Then she felt him "nuzzling" her mouth again and, knowing nothing had landed on her eyes, opened them to look up at him as she sucked the rest of what his dick held dry… for now. "How was that, master?" She asked, mimicking the style in which he would talk to her whenever she dominated. Sure, they didn't play dominance games often, usually only when one of them or both REALLY needed to get fucked, but that wasn't often. Still, it was a lot of fun…

"You did well, my sex toy, now let's put in a bit more variety, huh? I do believe you've got three holes for me to fill, and what's this?" He splayed his fingers over her abdomen "A flat, toned belly? That won't do, it needs to be filled up…" James growled before chuckling "Am I doing well at sounding evil?"

Tali glared from where she was towelling her hair "If you stop, I'll make sure you never wake up tomorrow."

He waggled his finger at her as he pushed her ahead of him out of the bathroom "Death threats are a turn-off my little slut…"

"Much better, and who said anything about death? I can get sedatives from Chakwas, she won't mind if I tell her you've been treating me like this." Tali shot back "Now are you going to use my body or not?"

James fake-growled at that "Seems my little sex toy is smarter than I thought, well you'd better learn your place bitch!" He slapped her rump before pushing her upper body against the wall with one arm and shoving three fingers of the other hand in her wet snatch, her butt stuck out for him to push his still-hard beef stick into after he slicked it up with a quick thrust or two into her cunt "Your ass is tighter than I remember, slut, maybe you haven't been fucking anything else after all, good, more for me then."

Tali groaned at the feeling "Ooh, yes, violate my butt… fuck me…"

"For those words I'm going to let you lie down on something, the desk will do." They'd cleared it earlier of paperwork after all. He led her over, fucking her as they "walked" before leaving her ass long enough to turn her around and lay her down on the desk, propping her legs on his shoulders. Then his dick went straight back to pushing through her anal sphincter into the gripping depths of her bowels. He leant a bit closer as he began to rub patterns along her body, arms, legs, and so on. "This lets your natural lubricant get used as it runs down onto my dick and into your ass, much more comfortable for you, no?" He asked.

"Yes, master, so good, don't stop…" Tali answered, not even needing to exaggerate. He knew her body much better than she did, and could get her to cum _so fucking hard_ even with anal sex and his hands and mouth on her body. Her life with James Shepard was a sort of bliss she never wanted to part with, and it wasn't just the sex. She suspected this was just why the universe exercised its sense of sadism by tearing them apart every time before now, but this time it would be different… she needed it to be different. "Keep fucking me James, you're gonna make me cum…" She moaned only to get pinched hard on one nipple and crying out in surprise.

"Who let you call me by my name bitch?" He growled huskily, eyes twinkling as he nailed her over and over. "I'm going to cum in your ass, my Tali, you like it?" He grabbed her shoulders and crushed his lips to Tali's purple lips possessively.

Dirty talk was one of Tali's more "out of character" turn-ons, she liked giving it and hearing it directed at her, as well as crying out as she was roughly fucked into a surface. "Oh yes, I'm your cum dump James, use me…" Tali gasped out when the long, bruising kiss ended. She liked talking rough and dirty, but she found the idea of physical pain to be a major turn-off, other than the sort of good hurt that was a hard pinch of her nipples, a teasing slap, a gentle love bite, or other such things. "I want to feel you filling my ass baby, I want it so bad…" She moaned as she felt his cock pulsing within her walls.

"Really, Tali? Well then I'm always happy to oblige you." He kissed her again, tenderly this time, and both groaned as his twitching dick shot more of his warm semen into her tight, gripping rectum.

"Oh… ooh…" Tali groaned into their kiss as she felt the liquid heat spreading within her belly as she gripped her lover with all her limbs and shivered violently, her back completely off the bed and nearly sitting up, clinging to her man. Then she felt that heat light off the conflagration that was her third climax of the night, her grip tightening around him as her insides quaked in release. "So glad I got Liara to help me with cleaning myself up for you…" She mumbled once she settled down, having drenched her lover's crotch with her own cum while his slowly tried to leak out from around his dick. Tali noted that the now half-dried cum on her breasts, what hadn't been removed by James' kneading, had begun sticking to her man's nearly hairless chest. It was one of his better physical traits, the fact that though he had some body hair, it wasn't irritating. She pulled back and did her best to cup her full, round breasts to her own mouth and lick the sticky white treat off.

James' chest vibrated with a rumbling chuckle as he picked her up from the desk, still slowly pumping into and out of her body, one hand settled on her wide hips and another running through her hair, to stretch out the afterglow for both of them. He was privately glad for whatever genes he'd inherited from his mother or maybe father that let him go three times in a row under average circumstances. When he was tired or sleepy it was typically cut to two, and when exhausted he was still able to shoot one load, of course, when very energetic it could go to four… Right now he reckoned his performance to be headed for "average" tonight, since he was feeling he was going slightly soft after his second shot of the night. "I better make this last one count…" He muttered, and Tali giggled from where she was nestled in his hold, licking his cum off her own breasts with her eyes sparkling happily.

"You always make things count, James, don't worry about it, right now I'm feeling rather satisfied, let's just focus on getting you off, preferably in one of my holes…" Tali groaned as he finally pulled out of her anus with a soft pop before setting her down on the bed and laying her back to rest a little.

James smirked and shook his head "Oh no, Tali, 'rather satisfied' isn't good enough for me, I want you feeling completely boneless…" He moved down and buried his nose in the small triangle of naturally grown (it looked trimmed, but it wasn't) pubic hair above her pearl, inhaling deeply and licking his lips at the heady scent of her fur matted down with her own orgasmic juices. Tali didn't squirt, but she generally poured out enough from her cavern of love that it sprayed out from around his dick if it was in there. He enjoyed trying to suck and lap it all up from the source… a lot.

James Shepard soon penetrated his lover with his skilful tongue and fingers as he did his best to give her a fresh orgasm. Her now five-fingered hands made their way into his hair, though the two new fingers were still somewhat weaker than the three originals on each hand. Tali pressed his head down as she ground her hips instinctively into his face, glazing the lower half of James' face with her delicious juices as she made little noises of pleasure under his ministrations. "So good James, lick faster… yes, that's it…"

With just how well James Shepard's instincts were geared toward the sensitive zones of Tali'Zorah it was not surprising that she didn't take long to reach climax. She simply moaned, her body arching slightly as her cunt literally poured her juices directly into James' face. He sealed his lips over her entrance as soon as he felt her tense up, and sucked what she could give him up greedily. When Tali's orgasm ended and her body went limp in his arms he trailed his tongue up her form as she moaned her satisfaction "You taste so delicious that I could snack on you all day…" He whispered to her and she shivered in a sudden, almost instinctive fear of the idea. James frowned worriedly "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just feels like some sort of memory or something at the edge of my consciousness." She replied before her eyes pulsed slightly brighter in the dim light of the bedroom "Now let's get you dry, shall we?" She wondered for a moment about whether she should suck him clean before deciding she wanted to feel him depositing his final hot load into her before she took his dick into her mouth again to clean it off. She was again very happy at how thorough a job Liara had done to ensure her guts were clean for the duration, as she had no intention to try touching her own crap.

James and Tali were cuddling as they whispered tender words to one another for the next few minutes. Tali curled her left leg over her lover's legs to let him slowly make love to her as they kissed and stroked each other's bodies, savouring the moment of soft tenderness in the afterglow of hard, rough fucking. Tali enjoyed her man whichever way she could get him, and she was almost addicted to hard fucking, but this sort of moment, this tenderness and soft words, was probably one of the reasons she'd fallen so hard, so absolutely, for him in the first place. He really was perfect for her, similar interests, but enough differences to make their lives interesting, liked talking to her about their future together, discussing their dreams, going out to places, treating her with a warmth that made her heart melt…

"What are you thinking, Tali?" He whispered to her as their bodies met again and again.

"Just how perfect you are for me."

He smiled at her in the dim light as they kept making love, their hands wandering over one another's bodies "Funny, I think you're the one who's perfect for me…"

"Being made for each other has its benefits, right?" Tali mumbled, nuzzling him "You even smell like home to me, not too thick but still warm and comforting."

He sniffed her too, grinning roguishly as his pace sped up a bit, filling the air with even more pheromones from their joining "And you smell like heaven to me." He leaned past her shoulder to nibble on one of her ears "you taste good too."

Tali shivered a bit as her hips began to move of their own accord, meeting his on every thrust, speeding up as she felt the heat bubbling inside her come closer to spilling over "You too, James, you too. Faster, baby, deeper…"

With that he raised her left leg into the air and started slamming her at a rapid pace, drawing cries of pleasure from her and hums of happiness from himself as he plunged into her sopping wet pussy over and over in their current position. Soon he smoothly straddled and pinned down one of her strong, toned thighs and, with her left leg propped up against his body, began reaming her as hard as he possibly could, instinctively rubbing against most of Tali's warm, slick cunt's sensitive spots in every thrust. The angle and penetration drove her to climax within a few minutes and bringing himself over the edge too as her juices ran over his balls again, spraying a little from around his cock with every hard thrust in. He groaned as his dick pumped the last of his cum for the session into her welcoming body, feeling it seeping into her womb before he continued slowly thrusting, his dick beginning to soften in earnest as he drew out her afterglow. As soon as he moved out of her, a surge of pent-up juices leaked from her and he bent down to lap it up, following even as she turned her body around, his eyes widened and his tongue stopped in mid-lick as he felt her lick his dick clean like she would a Popsicle. Once they'd cleaned each other off completely, Tali and James trudged to the bathroom for a quick rinse of their somewhat sticky bodies before they returned to the bed, changed the sheets, putting the dirty ones in the clothes cleaner under their bathroom sink, and went to bed.

* * *

><p><em>Bridge, CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 14, 3872<em>

Commander T'Soni sighed "It seems Tali's subconscious imprints of me, and her thing against snacking on still-living things, are still intact… I hated how she'd watch me with her weapons ready while I slept in case I decided to sleepwalk and eat something… something raw and preferably alive when I first chomped down on it. Of course, even after I got over that particular problem she still kept up the habit until she died…"

Crystal patted her later self on the back "Well that's all over now… don't worry about it. Let's see how that new technique you've taught Liara is going to work out. It's not quite as crazy as what you did with your John every once in a while but it's still damned good."

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><p>AN: WARNING, IF YOU CANNOT TRACK THREE PAIRS OR SIX PERSPECTIVES, BE CAREFUL HERE.

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><p><em>John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 14, 3872<em>

John had just removed the last of his blue lover's somewhat damp (from their PT regimen in the gym of the Crew Deck) clothing, happy that she'd passed off the main job of the Shadow Broker post to Feron for as long as he felt he could handle it alone, when she pushed him away. "John, I want to try something new tonight…" She stated, sounding a bit timid, like the shy Maiden he'd fallen in love with years ago would have sounded. Of course, he liked the older, more mature and confident Liara better, since her confidence was more suitable to someone of her beauty, intellect, and incredible power.

He smiled warmly at her, making her confidence at the crazy idea she'd been taught grow a little more "Just show me the way."

"Just enter Union with me as usual and relax while I try this…" She murmured.

"Makes me feel almost guilty, having you do all the work for me." John teased and Liara smirked before her pupils flared.

_Well, we'll just have to correct that, don't we?_ Liara whispered directly into his mind as he felt her soul unite with his, it wasn't a tangible feeling so much as just knowing and feeling another presence mingling with your own…

"_Well, the Commander"_ they both knew which Commander she was talking about _"taught me how to multiply physical pleasure for either or both of us using psychic powers, but I think it would be more fun if we used avatars… I learnt how to handle perspective-splitting for other people._

"Wait, are you saying…" John Shepard stopped moving as he suddenly felt like he was in three places at once. "Okay, this is really weird."

Liara chuckled as her man slowly adjusted to controlling three bodies at once with her psychic help. "What's more, you'll still get the full dose of pleasure from each one… now you won't be able to outlast me by nearly so much." She teased with a cute quirk of her lips.

"Don't be so sure, Liara, I doubt you can handle three of me that easily." John shook all three heads he currently controlled, his own body and the two avatars she had just created for him "Wow, talking from three people is really weird."

"Did you know that the Commander had lots of weirder experiences that I decided were just too odd to try? Remember, John, you're not the only one who's been multiplied." Liara's voice came from two distinct sources behind the three "guys" (well, one guy and two avatars) in the room. "And yes, unlike you, I have better individual control, you can control motor functions of your individual avatars as well as yourself but when you talk it might come out a bit… garbled."

"Sometimes I wonder if I've been living a wet dream since our first time." John said to the real Liara, noting his mouth seemed a bit unwilling to speak on its own. "Then I remembered that people don't generally get resurrected in wet dreams, so I figured I might still be dead, because this is feeling pretty close to what heaven would be like for most men."

Liara melted just a bit more on the inside at the sincerity and love she could feel rolling off the one she was made for (and who was built to order for her) in waves "Want me to turn on pheromone and psychic influence to heighten this even more?" She thought to him as she locked lips with him, feeling multiple pairs of hands on her thanks to their avatars already mixing it up with bodily contact.

"_Liara, this… you… are enough of a fantasy already, there's no need to heighten it. Besides, I want to actually last for more than a few minutes at a time."_ The response was a mental giggle, after all, last time she'd put pheromones and psychic influence to max he had shot all over the bed sheets while devoting all his attention to drawing out her own climax with his mouth and hands. He didn't even touch himself and she had made him lose it through psychic stimulation. _"Trying to hold it with three times the input of pleasure will be difficult enough."_

"_You know that I probably won't last long either right?"_ Liara asked _"This will be a good stamina-building exercise. I mean, I really like how you get me off, but I like the process even better, it would be nice to be able to draw it out in the future."_

"Yeah… Liara, that's cheating!" John spoke the last part through one of his avatars as the copy of Liara that one was caressing had sunk to her knees and wrapped a mouth as hot and slick as that of the original around his copy's dick, and he could feel it. He could see how the avatar kept taking it to the hilt from a first-person perspective even while the other two perspectives he had showed still kissing, touching and cuddling "Doesn't Liara Two need to breathe?" He asked Liara Prime (the label he just shoved on her mentally, corresponding to the labels he'd put on his perspectives).

"_Are you complaining about the fact that my avatars don't need to breathe, John Prime?"_ Liara Prime asked teasingly as Liara Three started stroking John Three's member with her hands.

John Prime snorted before beginning to circle Liara Prime's clit with two fingers as he backed her up against a wall "Liara, you're too good for me, you know that, you're letting me live an average guy's fantasy… from three viewpoints!" He began to move down her nude body, trailing kisses in his wake "I'm not stupid enough to complain, Liara…" He mentally moved John Three to bend Liara Three over the arm of the sofa and start teasing her with his fingers and dick, then raised an eyebrow at how Liara Prime's lubricant fluids were starting to seep out from her slit "My, my, aren't we eager?" He asked as his dick twitched involuntarily when Liara signalled agreement by having her Two hum happily. He leant in and gave her a long lick "I missed the taste of you…" He muttered to himself before pressing his lips to hers and beginning to kiss her cunt the way she liked it.

"_That's sweet… and so good, John."_ Liara thought to him, feeling her love's fingers and dick teasing her entrance while his tongue invaded her welcoming love tunnel and his dick, another one, thrust into her mouth.

"_No, you're the one that's really sweet, Liara."_ John thought back, flicking her nub with his tongue to emphasize the fact that he meant that as well the emotional aspect. His second body (John Two) pulled away from Liara Two's mouth and picked her up (she allowed him) and placed her on the bed with a soft, tender kiss in plain sight of Liara Prime and Three, who were watching, making noises of contentment as the bodies John controlled pleasured them. John's mind seemed to mingle with Liara's and squeeze warmly rather spontaneously, and she responded by her hips twitching into his face a little and moaning happily while mind-hugging him back.

"Come on, John, just fuck me already…" Liara begged.

"_What… ah, right, John Two…"_ He grinned against the real Liara's pussy lips as the first pair of avatars groaned when he pushed his cock slowly into Liara Two's cunt. Liara Three and Prime both bucked their hips into their counterparts' faces in pleasure as three let out a muffled cry against John Three's dick (she'd pulled his body around over her own, since she didn't need to breathe). That made the real John Shepard groan against the vaginal opening of the woman he loved and work harder at pleasuring her with all three bodies he currently controlled. Liara's head was leant back against the wall and her back arched, hands in her mate's hair as she enjoyed the immersive experience of all their memories, feelings and sensations melting together into one. She wanted to melt into him, do her best to pleasure him however he wanted, knowing she would get the same in return. He was the only one for her, he would forever be the only one for her. He knew everything she wanted, knew all her sweet spots… _Oh Goddess…_ She gasped as he flicked his tongue inside her against a sensitive spot on her inner walls in tandem with his second body's thrusts into her second body. It was an interesting mix of full-blast sensory input, John's massive cock and firm, flexible tongue inside her seemingly at the same time, but it was so good, so good… _"I'm going to cum soon John… It's too good not to… I wish this could last forever…"_ She thought, the last part making its way out of her unconsciously, but it was too late to retract her words.

John sensed her sudden mental frown at her own words and smirked against her flesh, looking up at her with the warm brown eyes she loved so much to stare into as they talked about anything and everything _"You don't need to hold back, Liara, if your bodies are synchronized and you want to cum, then cum… I'm not going to last too much longer either."_

Liara shivered and felt her pussy walls tremble a bit, she really was close… _"I hope you can make John Two follow his copy of me as she moves over here. I don't want to waste anything."_

John Two leant close to Liara's second body's fringe and whispered "I'll do my best."

She nodded her secondary body's head before she began moving, not too fast, so that John's auxiliary body could keep up the depth and power of his slow, satisfying strokes into and out of her secondary body's slick hole "That's all I can ask of you." She moaned out as she approached the original bodies of them. Liara moved around so that they were now free from the wall and relatively in the open, John following her, mouth working wonders on her body and mentally cuddling with her soul.

Liara Two got onto her knees, pulling John Two into a doggy style position, before leaning forward and getting on her forearms and taking the real John Shepard's pulsing cock into her warm, wet mouth, which was almost as good as the original, with a single benefit: no need to breathe, so it could be fucked as hard as her Shepard could pull off. He was usually much more than satisfactory to her, but when he activated what little biotic capability he had to boost his speed just a little bit more, he was a sex god to her.

_And you're my goddess, Liara…_ He thought with absolute sincerity, shuddering as Liara Two's throat constricted voluntarily around his dick. _Do you really enjoy that?_ He questioned _Most women don't really want to give oral… think it tastes bad…_

Liara Prime's legs were trembling from all the input she had from all three of her currently controlled bodies. _And most men are not made to order… taste of cum and dick size included._ Now she was getting the simultaneous feeling of being fucked in the ass, cunt and mouth at the same time as she was being eaten out by her lover, and the fact that she was free to shout and mutter as much as she wanted was only a bonus. It was a blissful feeling, this feeling of complete spiritual AND physical unity with the one person she loved most. She found cuddling to be a sort of heaven in the way their emotions and souls seeped into one another as they held each other close and exchanged their feelings directly in addition to using soft words, but she liked sex even better for some reason. Perhaps it was her nature and condition at work, but she didn't feel any predatory impulses anymore, that must have meant something… right? _Oh my fucking Goddess!_ She shook violently before leaning her head against the wall as her knees sagged, buckling slightly as she orgasmed when John Three pinched Liara Three's clit softly as he took her sideways up the ass.

John's eyes flew open in time to quickly shut again as she began splashing onto his face, her soft, gripping yet slick walls tightening around his tongue as he felt her body spasming around his dick… multiplied by two, as well as Liara Two yanking his hips and dick forward impossibly deep into her throat. He gasped through his other two bodies at the feeling as his balls tightened… "I'm gonna cum…"

"Then cum for me John, cum for me…" Liara Prime and Three moaned, Liara Two only able to let out a contented gurgle around his dick.

"Where do you want it love?" John asked her, a part of his mind still marvelling at the fact that his lover was willing to do this sort of thing for him.

Liara smiled down at him as her body kept trembling in the aftershocks of her climax "Just wherever your dicks are, I want to know what it feels like to be filled up in all three holes at once, and John? I'd do anything for you, John, and I know the same is true of you, so I want you to cum in me… please…" She smiled happily as her brain felt the three dicks her lover controlled pulse harder before they exploded into her bodies. It felt like his hot goo was filling her every orifice at the same time, splashing the inside of her intestines, leaking into her womb, and spraying down her throat at the same time. A fresh wave of joyous spasming rippled through the three bodies she controlled at once and she nearly came again just from the feeling of being completely filled up. Her mind was screaming obscenities as she writhed in pleasure as he emptied himself into all her holes, her shuddering only subsiding as he finished climaxing.

John Three lifted Liara Three's legs up and put them up on his shoulders as he pulled out of Liara Three's ass and rammed into her slick cunt, earning a happy gasp from the avatar writhing beneath him . At the same time John Two had picked his Liara counterpart up, pushing her against the wall and taking her ass from behind, only pulling out long enough to push into her tight, dusty violet coloured sphincter. The originals of the two were going at it against the wall too, Liara's limbs wrapped around her human lover as they devoured each other's lips hungrily, the physical pleasure from three inputs almost too much to bear. "If heaven exists, then I might as well vacate my reservation in it for someone else." John whispered when they finally broke apart, their foreheads resting against each other as their hips met again and again with soft squelching noises.

_I agree, this is so much better than bliss…_ That was the general gist of what Liara thought back, but the fact that she was coming close to climax again made the thought message somewhat fuzzy and garbled. _Oh Goddess… so big, so deep… keep going John, keep going._

John snorted mentally as he sped up, slamming completely home with every thrust and nearly pulling out every time, using the more computerized part of his mind to make sure he didn't leave his lover's body even once. _Unless you told me to, I wouldn't stop for anything short of a total emergency…_

Liara smirked lazily as her body began to tremble "That's almost a cue for your mother to ring the battle stations alarm… ooh…" Her back arched off the wall as she doused their conjoined crotches with her orgasmic fluids, the juices running down her delicious bubble butt and her lover's legs as he kept on pounding her into the wall. Her two avatars were similarly shuddering and tensed, squeezing her Shepard's dick(s) for all it was worth. When Liara (all three of her controlled bodies) finally came down from her high, she thought of something else "John, stop, I'm going to try something else involving all six of us and the bed…" Once all the controlled bodies of her lover stopped and pulled out, and that was basically immediate, she started moving. The two avatar Liara's went first, cuddling up against each other o the bed and beginning to touch each other, mouths meeting as they kissed and the original looked on. "I've never kissed myself before… interesting… but I like kissing you better…" She watched as the two avatars' soft blue hands ran over each other's bodies under her control, squeezing what were basically her own breasts gently, lifting them a bit, testing their weight… before they moved one hand each to finger each other's leaking, dripping pussies, and the original moved into the space their legs still left between them, which clamped down on her head as she began to lap at the sticky, slick skin and lips of her copies. "Well, John, I think you know what I wan… ugh!" She grunted as she felt two inputs' worth of anal penetration of the copies of her while another of her lover pushed through her folds into her love tunnel. She went back to fingering her copies as she felt one of the John Shepard copies' arms snake around her to pinch her rock-hard nipples and caress her lovingly while he nibbled on her fringe. _John, why aren't you the one behind me… oh, that makes sense, I wouldn't want to try it otherwise…_ She realized what he wanted to see, and smiled to herself at the new idea he'd proposed.

Having minds, souls, and three bodies' worth of mingling only had one side-effect: Neither of them could last nearly as long as they would normally have, but to Liara that didn't really matter. She felt John Shepard's hot semen bloom inside her belly under the smooth blue skin that his fingers—all the sets of them—lovingly caressed as his dick pulsed in her depths, filling all three of her controlled bodies with his essence as she groaned happily. Her bodies shuddered as she felt her own groan vibrate against what were basically her own nether lips before she pulled away, knowing what would come next. The replicas of John Shepard and the original slowed down somewhat and John Three rolled onto his back, pulling Liara Three on top of him, her back to his chest and her fringe still being treated to an oral massage, she was still making out hungrily with Liara Two, their hard nipples poking at each other and their rather large breasts rubbing together. While that was happening, John Prime took his place near the two kissing avatars' heads, and put his dick, still coated with his own cum, between them, their kiss continuing around the pole as if nothing happened while John Two continued pumping Liara Prime's cunt at a sedate pace and she leant in toward Liara Two's body.

"I look really tight… how do you fit?" Liara asked as she prodded at her own anus—and felt the prodding—with a quizzical sort of curiosity, looking at John Prime questioningly.

"You ARE really tight, I only manage to get in if you relax, after that it's not as difficult…" John stated as she returned her attentions to her own somewhat purplish back hole, Liara pushed a finger against it gently and felt herself tense a bit, before mentally ordering herself to relax somewhat, sinking knuckle-deep into her own ass and feeling the intrusion, gasping suddenly at the feeling. "I know, it's incredible…" _every bit of you is…_

She smiled warmly at him as she felt her fluids and his swish around just a little inside her cunt as John Two kept his sedate, loving pace, keeping his hands on her hips to not interfere with her work "Thanks, John." She then noted the warm cum beginning to run out of her own avatar's ass along her finger and pulled the digit back. As she licked it clean John sent her a plan which she immediately approved. Liara Three got up and off Liara Two long enough for her to move aside before settling back over John Three and taking him into her soaked cunt with a soft squelch. "My avatars sound really real…" she mumbled as Liara Two and John Prime settled into a sideways position next to Liara Prime and John Two, who were still going at it doggy-style. She gasped as she felt Liara Two's anus spread as if it was her own and take John Prime in balls-deep in a swift slam home, it wasn't hard, considering how much of her own lubricant and his cum, real or simulated, had already made it into the tight hole. However it did make the ass of the avatar in front of her relax a bit and that meant the huge load her lover had left in there was beginning to leak out. She mentally congratulated John for thinking of this, as she wouldn't have, and this way she could avoid any sanitation concerns whatsoever as she began to tongue her own asshole. After a few licks to lap up what had escaped, conscious of the pussy being reamed not ten centimetres from her chin, she began to push into what was technically her own ass with her tongue, worming her way in and slowly sucking out the delicious treat her mate had left for her inside. It really paid off to have someone built to order for you… "This would probably feel even better if you did it."

She felt John Two pull out of her cunt, which left said orifice rather unhappy and her feeling a sense of loss. Even though it was only an avatar, it was still her Shepard, the only one she would ever love, behind the wheel. Her eyes widened as he spoke "You're right, Liara, I've never tried this, but after seeing you eat your own ass… I owe you this."

"But I didn't clean too thoroughly…" Liara didn't get to finish before she gasped as he began licking her rear hole. "It IS better when you do it…" She resumed sucking her man's cum out of Liara Three's ass as John Two paid her anus some loving attention, fingering her pussy to appease it for the time being.

"I turned the taste input off, and besides, you can clean these avatars at will, no?" John Prime commented from where he was fucking Liara Two's ass for ass she was worth, both of the could feel another orgasm coming on…

Liara climaxed first when the three John Shepard's coordinated their attacks to hit all her hot spots at the same moment over and over again, then, even while she was riding out her high, she felt John Two get up and move forward before quickly aiming to shoot his sticky white (despite being simulated) sperm all over her ass and pussy, joining the smeared cum, from both of them, already glistening all over her nether regions. She shuddered violently as a fresh rush of her own juices bloomed from the three pussies under her control at present. "Oh Goddess… so hot… so good…" She moaned in bliss as John Prime doused Liara Two's face and breasts, and John Three, having quickly rolled Liara Three over, sprayed his thick white goo all over her taut belly.

As the Shepard's caught their breath, the Liara's began to grind their bodies together, smearing each other with cum both real and fake until they were wearing their lover's sticky white fluid all over their bodies like badges of honour. Then they started licking it off of each other, watching their man (well, men) staring at their supple, lithe blue bodies intertwined with each other, lapping cum off of each other and sharing it by sensual kisses with tonguing. Liara felt lust begin to cloud the link between her and her lover and smiled against one of her copies' breasts, usually she'd feel nothing but pure love over the link, but this was good. It meant…

A pair of strong hands settled around her bountiful hips as John Prime positioned himself before her, Liara turning from licking her copies' breasts to watch him smile warmly at her before slamming home into her sopping wet cunt. Her flesh spread to grip the welcome, familiar phallus, inviting him in as he brushed up, barely, against her cervix, then pulled back and began to steadily thrust into her as she slung her arms around his neck. Liara was giving her avatars enough space to lick his cum off her sticky body and hanging on at the same time as he made love to her on the edge of the bed, both making noises of pleasure as Liara felt one of her copies being pulled away by its John Shepard counterpart to be taken lotus-style on the sofa. The second pair of avatars eventually pulled away for fast and dirty anal sex with Liara Three bent over the armrest of the sofa, moaning as she fingered Liara Two's ass and her own cunt fervently, her milky blue jugs being roughly kneaded by John Three and John Two doing the same for Liara Two.

Liara and John Prime turned her around so they both watched and felt their copies going at it while they themselves shared each other's bodies with content smiles, their souls and feelings still mingling, dancing together in a whirlpool of what they figured was effectively eternal love. After all, with so many cycles already under their belts, despite the endings… they could make an honest claim to eternity together. Liara Two pushed herself off of John Two before he got the message and got off the sofa so she could lie down, Liara Three fingering her ass again and giving her oral, not needing to breathe being a major benefit as she grunted and groaned against what was technically her own pussy as her ass was taken roughly but with care from behind. "I don't think I let you use these big girls enough…" Liara Prime told her lover, who nodded back as, under his control, John Two slid his massive, fully hardened dick between the firm blue mounds on the chest of his Liara counterpart. "Blue mounds? Is that the best you can come up with for these?" Liara spoke through Two and pouted sadly at the avatar straddling her chest, his cock squeezed in the valley between her breasts as he rubbed the organ, slick with her vagina's natural lubricant, between the soft mountains.

"Sorry Liara… it's just that your tits… hell, all of you, are so beautiful… like a young Goddess. Watching you kiss and touch your copies nearly made me cum all over your three bodies…"

She locked her mouth around his head as it came close enough and began to work her well-endowed chest up and down his thick shaft "Well you should have done that then…" She grumbled, licking all over the head of the dick that was sandwiched between her full milky globes, feeling herself get fucked so much at once was beginning to take its toll on her.

He sensed it almost as soon as she did "Liara, you don't need to hold back, baby… cum for me…" he whispered into her ear analogue, kissing her fringe softly afterward as he felt the pleasure coming off her in waves with his work.

"It's hard to outlast you… one of the only downsides of your body knowing my body better than I do…" Liara panted as she felt her next climax on its way toward her. Only a few minutes later it hit her like a bus as her back arched and she shouted out in pleasure, her bodies tensing and tightening, spasming repeatedly. Eventually, it ended and she slumped tiredly, feeling her man pull out much to her disappointment. "What are you doing?" She asked him, dissipating their copies so it was just the two of them again.

"You've already given me enough tonight, Liara, you're bound to be tired… let's wash off and rest."

She shook her head "No, you still have more in you… I want it in me."

"Don't be too greedy baby…" He teased as he helped her unwilling body move toward the bathroom, then sighed as she pouted at him "but I never could deny you this sort of thing… Do what you like with me, I'm all yours."

Liara grinned broadly as John began to adjust the water temperature before settling to her knees and taking his member, which was starting to soften, back into her mouth. _A little mouth to cock resuscitation should bring him back to life._ She thought to him as she looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes tainted with a glimmer of teasing mischief. He simply moaned assent as she began to suck his dick clean… and coaxed his balls to drain themselves completely into her mouth with firm strokes of her tongue and swallowing motions of her throat around his member.

When they finally got clean and made it to the bed, they simply curled up against one another and drifted off to sleep, content that they would be together for eternity, and that nothing could separate them… As they relaxed in each others' presence, Liara could have sworn she heard the soothing tinkling of bells forming a complex set of music in the background.

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><p><em>CSC Pillar of Autumn, February 15, 3872 (Early hours of the morning)<em>

"Soothe Bells?" Crystal deadpanned "SOOTHE BELLS?"

Commander T'Soni nodded "Yep, Soothe Bells, helps achieve part of the same effect Calm Mind does, raises Special Defence and Defence ratings, useful now that she has that instinctive barrier up around her body again to defend against attacks and impacts."

"But really, did you have to call them Soothe Bells?"

"Well that's what they're called where I come from, alright?" the Legendary Commander growled. "It's good to have an instrumental skill, even if I built the instrument myself from different sizes of the bells. Still, I have Lucky Chant fully activated and cast over them… I hope that's enough before she can fully assimilate all the information we dumped on her… all those skills… let's hope no critical hits is good enough. With Coalition medical tech, it probably will be, no head-shots is enough anyways for most circumstances. I mean, the universe has never pulled a vaporization thing on us, it's too sadistic for that."

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><p><em>Unknown Location, February 16, 3872<em>

"How goes the construction of the Gateway?" Harbinger asked another Reaper via transmission.

"Nearing completion, overlord, it should be ready within a few Galactic Standard Days."

"Excellent, when it is ready, we shall link the galaxies and ignite the next major war between someone else and the pesky Coalition to grind that someone else down. Thankfully the Vorlons stopped trying to find a quick route between galaxies after some incident of some sort involving their tech, their Gateway technology was getting a bit too close… though ours is more of a Rift." The Vorlons had battled the Reapers in the past, one of the reasons raids on what the Forerunners had and the humans now called the Andromeda Galaxy typically avoided that area of space. Besides, hyperspace was unstable in Vorlon and Shadow space (outside races these days termed the general areas "The Unknown Regions") anyhow, so the Reapers would be forced to deploy the more tactical-scale Mass Effect drives to be safe and stealthy. It would be better to introduce the two sides to one another at the current, rather explosive, moment in the two histories. How foolish the Vorlons had been to have modified the history of the humans there to match the past of this one's Earth for so long…

It was also good that there was a large war going on in that other galaxy outside Vorlon Space, in the areas where Hyperspace was actually stable, it would likely end up spilling over, and the more warships of all races taken out, the safer things would be for the Reapers when they came to harvest again. The loss of part of the crop would be an annoyance, but nothing compared to the downright danger this batch of races had manifested into.

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><p>Note: This Codex Entry is available to all citizens, viewer discretion is advised.<p>

COALITION CODEX ENTRY: AEROSPACE WARFARE SUMMARY

Many citizens of the Coalition of Species have noted the lack of purpose-built space-superiority fighters. However, they come to understand at a glance just WHY all the current generation of assorted aerospace craft is "Aerospace" in nature. Consider the following:

Any current Aerospace Superiority Fighter is able to pull 1 km/s standard cruise speed in atmosphere. This is so absurdly low because it is more economical for fuel than use of Afterburner or Supercharger technologies. Afterburners allow an aircraft to add 50% speed while doubling fuel consumption per time, reducing distance-fuel ratios to 75% what it was before, and Superchargers fully double speed while increasing to three times the fuel consumption (thankfully, upgrades have allowed this to actually be practical) thus reducing the distance-fuel ratio to two-thirds what it was, or 66.6 repeater percent of what it was before. Note that any current Aerospace Superiority Fighter can pull a turn within one second in an extremely short distance (classified) using its navigation programs. This represents an acceleration of 400 times the force of Earth gravity (2km/s one way to 2km/s the other way). No other race except the Protoss and maybe Zerg in the case of Mutalisks is known to possess aerospace superiority units with accelerations able to remotely compete, and they can be overrun/out-powered if need be.

The reason why all starfighters are Aerospace Units is simple: They can operate as well in atmosphere as outside atmosphere, and the difference with space is the maximum speed/acceleration setting. While technically their engines are capable of accelerations up to tens of thousands of gravities outside and inside atmosphere, this is only used outside atmosphere simply because active camouflage/passive stealth or even active stealth can only hide so much, and speeds much more than Mach 7 (or accelerations more than about 500 g's) in atmosphere produce a sufficient sonic disturbance of the air that optical sensors scanning aerial current patterns will be able to monitor the flight tracks of the aircraft across dangerous amounts of distance (though missiles are to a lesser extent due to being smaller, so can accelerate faster). This system was invented by the Legendary Commander T'Soni and used to extreme effect against high-speed but fragile attack craft fielded by the UEF and Aeon Illuminate in the middle years of the Infinite War. Later on all factions adopted the technology and the advantage has since been lost, but speeds remain low for stealth purposes even with the newest improvements to active camouflage and dampening technologies. Of course, the sensitivity applies only to Coalition optical sensors, as we are uncertain if anyone else can do this yet. In space, Coalition Aerospace Units are able to perform acrobatics far beyond most other starfighters. The only races with the ability to out-turn ASFs or even T1 Interceptors are the Protoss with their own Interceptors and Zerg Mutalisks or Scourge. Not enough data is available on the Forerunners, Protheans or Reapers to say anything about them.

Another question often raised is how damned heavy armour coverage is even for aerospace craft, after all, most believe that a structural field with a strong enough generator can use very little mass for an incredibly strong plate almost like magic. Though T1 Wall Sections cost only 10 mass each and have 2000 Field Point Rating each, it must be noted that a Wall section reclaims part of the underlying ground normally to supplant the twenty-ton mass being distributed over a volume of 2000 cubic meters (20 by 20 by 5) that would make it a tenth the density of water otherwise. Therefore, though wall sections can technically float on water, they are not generally used there since reclaiming water is, at best, very tedious for even the best computers since particulate sizes are so small and inter-particle space variable enough (unlike, say, sand or even mud, which has large, relatively stationary particles) that it doesn't work quickly enough. Thickness and/or volume are required for a field to be truly strong, even the hyped-up field of wall sections need quite some volume for the matrix to work right. As Air Units cannot afford being too big and thus too detectable, whether by air current deflection or anything else, they cannot go for too much volume. This brings them to the other end of armour plating: high-density materials. The plating is such that the last few to a few hundred point ratings are actually for armour, and on the densest units, the T3 air units, armour thickness can range up to several decimetres in places. This is why Aerospace Units cost significant amounts of mass in addition to huge amounts of energy, as most non-experimentals have "small" internal volumes. By contrast, most experimentals are outer armoured hull and inner, thinner hull (generally only for protection from glancing hits toward the core areas), with lots of bulkheads and structural supports, but mostly empty space. The huge Fatboys, Tempests, Soul Rippers, Ahwassas etc. are often lighter than water if one crunches the numbers for one main reason: They have tanks and open areas that can fill up when they submerge. Though this does not apply to Aerospace Craft normally, it serves to reinforce the point that though structural fields are important, armour plating is still very prominent in Coalition unit design and in fact is one of the reasons they cranked up ACU field ratings so easily through the progression of the Infinite War: They were designed with thick plating in mind and that plating could easily be used to support a structural field projection matrix, allowing field strength to be much amplified from what would have been without the matrix.

Readers should also note the following: Most other races excluding Zerg, Protoss and Covenant do not possess starfighter-type units able to conduct full-scale atmospheric operations, this limits the flexibility of planetary assaults. Whereas other factions will need to employ specialized planetary assault craft, the Coalition can immediately convert any warship above 3872 Light Frigates (3860 Battle Cruiser) for use as a ship of the general classification of "Planetary Assault Carrier". Also, most of our Aerospace Units are highly modified derivatives of the air units they began as. For example, most have omni-directional thrusters attached to wing-tips and such (See: Corsair T2 Fighter/Bomber) and at least much-increased propulsion systems than before. It cannot be stated enough that the extreme limiting of speed in-atmosphere is due to need for stealth. Thankfully, the increasing efficiency of Mass Extractor, Mass Fabricator and Power Generator systems have allowed these to be still viable to field in ACU warfare situations where the ACU spearhead, as usual, far outstrips any supporting fleet's progress. Of course, this also means that a re-scaling of the cost measurement units may be in order… but that is for another day, another codex entry.

END CODEX ENTRY

FOR MORE INFORMATION REFER TO "AEROSPACE SUPERIORITY FIGHTER", "COALITION SPACE-BASED CARRIERS", "AERIAL CURRENT PATTERN TRACKERS", ETC.

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><p>AN: **Sorry this took so long, but I am technically not old enough to legally view adult material where I live, so that's why writing this in plain sight was even more tedious than usual, staying undercover is important.**

Don't expect the B5 or Star Wars crossovers to begin publishing until after I'm done with Heart of the Swarm. That will be after all four of the more important story arcs of PROL are up. **Believe me, even if you don't want to read the rest, wait until it starts going up and then read Arc 4, it will be an absolute shocker… literally.**

Oh, and I am not taking the Gigatons for turbolaser bolts. However, I am making them adjustable-yield guns (to make ground support turbolaser fire possible), maxed out at kiloton-level bolts, but with very high firing rate (ergo the term turbo). I am also going to be up-powering Minbari warships considerably since using gravitic thrust means you can dampen inertia. Although the EA will likely be just as pathetic, at least there will be a reason for why they failed so miserably in the Earth-Minbari War (might amp EA ships to 5-6 g's max thrust though). You know, I got the 2 MT number from AlbertG, who did so much research to write his fics that I just believed him on that one… oops. For the record, Graviton Beams aren't that scary to the Coalition, witness the Seraphim Strategic Bomber (T3 or T4) bombs, they're all rift/singularity/gravity-based ammunition types. All I can say is that though Gravity Beams will be quite effective, they won't be as dangerous as the neutron cannons' sheer continuous beam yield. Pretty sure the gravity cannons are Vorlon and Shadow weapons though… the Sharlin page on Wikipedia didn't say anything about one.

I have a feeling the Coalition entering the B5 region will be akin to a Deux Ex Machina.

REVIEW!

The Following is a Preview of Arc 4 of Pokémon: Rise of Legends (and last chapter of Arc 3), a few Chapter Titles to stimulate your brain and interest, believe me, **even if you don't read arcs 1-3, you must read Arc 4**, it is the most important of them BY FAR.

Arc 3 Final Chapter: Death Closes All

Arc 4 Chapters (first four in order, later ones may not be):

But Something Ere The End…

Some Deed of Noble Note…

May Yet Be Done…

Later Chapters: (no particular order)

Jack the Ripper

Legion of the Damned

Always Faithful

A Shock to Raise the Dead

REVIEW!


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